Soon after the end of World War II, Winston Churchill warned in a historic speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., that an "iron curtain" had come down in Europe, placing Eastern countries forcibly under Soviet domination. The former British prime minister called for "a special relationship" between Britain and the United States to defend the Free World. Ever since, "the special relationship" has signaled the almost sacred bond linking the two countries. In July, President Obama spoke of "a truly special relationship" in welcoming Prime Minister David Cameron on his first trip to the White House following his election. But is the relationship still special? And who benefits from it? Today, the special relationship is a complex, joined-at-the-hip transatlantic partnership, but in an increasingly multipolar world, and with U.S. demographics shifting away from their European origins, does it have a future?

Roland Flamini is a Washington-based correspondent who writes a foreign-affairs column for CQ Weekly. Fluent in six languages, he served as Time magazine's bureau chief in Rome, Bonn, Beirut, Jerusalem and the European Common Market and later served as international editor at United Press International.