Edinburgh EH8 9LL

The transatlantic relationship has provided a solid foundation for North American and European security and prosperity. That foundation has become heavily institutionalised. Arguably, the alliance between the United States and member states of the European Union (EU) is more firmly established and routinised in international institutions than any alliance in history. Yet, for these foundations to endure, both sides need to embrace radical institutional change in their relations with one another. 2 The problem is not simply (and simplistically) that ‘America is from Mars, Europe is from Venus ’ (Kagan 2003). Certainly, each side has evolved teleologically – in terms of their basic purpose as international powers – in ways that make partnership more difficult. The share of their respective international agendas that overlaps has shrunk. But the central problem is that both sides are subject, in a post-Cold War context, to domestic political pressures that make it more difficult for either side to exhibit true statesmanship in their relations with the other (Kahler 2005; Peterson 2005). These general observations may seem to apply to trade relations less powerfully than t