Signed in 1995 by the United States and the European Union, the New Transatlantic Agenda (nat) was designed to foster and deepen relations between the two powers after the end of the Cold War. Last of four nta’s domains of collaboration insisted on the development of « people-to-people » dialogues between civil society from both sides of the Atlantic. This article, building on the concept of civil society, focuses on the Transatlantic Environmental Dialogue (taed). I argue that the Gramscian interpretation of civil society can be convincingly used to explain taed’s collapse two years only after its foundation.