This book delivers a clear and balanced interpretive history of transatlantic security relations from the late-1940s to the present day. The author writes in the authoritative and highly readable style that has made his work required reading for policy makers as well as academic experts on and students of International Relations on both sides of the Atlantic. The lively text is also highly accessible for the citizen who wants to develop an understanding of how the United States and Europe came to their current, complex security relationship. The analysis suggests that the democratic principles and shared interests on which NATO and the European Union are based serve as the foundation for 'the West', a term that originated in the Cold War conflict between western democracies and the Soviet Union, but which continues to have meaning today in light of new challenges to Western security.