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The notion that the United States cannot govern the world alone, that the time has come for Americans to think "intercontinentally," is hardly revolutionary. On July 4, 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy described the obsolescence of the idea of U.S. hegemony: "Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world; we cannot insure its domestic tranquility or provide for its common defense, or promote its general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." The United States must, as Kennedy believed then, seek out a partner in this endeavor. That partner was Europe.