New start with former American bond (5)
I believe the answer is:
nexus
'bond' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'new start with former american' is the wordplay.
'start with' indicates taking the first letters.
'former' becomes 'ex'.
'american' becomes 'us'.
The initial letter of 'new' is 'n'.
'n'+'ex'+'us'='NEXUS'
(Other definitions for nexus that I've seen before include "Focal point; link" , "Connected series; central point" , "Bond, connected group" , "joined group" , "Link, connection" .)