Thank you very much for that kind introduction. It is a real pleasure for me to be with you to discuss the future of the U.S.-European relationship. I'm grateful to Peter Ludlow and the Center for European Policy Studies for this opportunity to share some of our ideas with you. However, the coincidence of time matches, in fact, the dramatic reality of change.
Transatlantic relations are indeed on the threshold of a new era.
Some wonder whether that new era will see Europe and America drift apart. In the past decade, change has been rapid, and often difficult to grasp. A new Euro-Atlantic world is, in fact, upon us. The old glue of the Cold War has dried out and begun to crack. Mutual distractions pull us in directions that can differ.