After a period of strain and tension during the past decade, the United States and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) have a major opportunity to strengthen their alliance and to transform it into a global partnership. In anticipation of new presidential administrations in both countries, the New York-based Korea Society and Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center formed the New Beginnings policy research study group in January 2008.  New Beginnings is a nonpartisan group of former senior U.S. government officials, scholars, and other American experts on Korea. The members of this New Beginnings study group were asked to make recommendations to U.S. presidential candidates, policymakers, and the American public on ways to strengthen U.S.-South Korean relations. In February, the group conferred at Stanford and then traveled to Seoul for intensive discussions with then President-elect Lee and his top foreign policy and security advisers, as well as with the head of the South Korean opposition. The group also met with business people, academic experts, and journalists. This report is the product of these efforts.