After 200 years as a Mediterranean power, the United States remains an enigma as a Mediterranean actor. The US casts a wide political and security shadow over the region, but has never articulated a Mediterranean policy, and there is little prospect of it doing so. This article explores evolving American attitudes toward Mediterranean strategy and dialogue, from the Cold War roots of Washington’s wary approach, through the response to the Barcelona process, to the effect of the first and second wars with Iraq. The analysis concludes with a discussion of plausible “futures” and the prospects for a new American policy toward the Mediterranean.