Of course all of this cannot be credited to the European Union. The United States military presence in Europe and the predictability that the Cold War gave to international relations also contributed significantly to fifty years of peace in Europe. Some American writers, notably Robert Kagan who has been much quoted in recent weeks, have belittled the European Union on the ground that it has naively tried to substitute its practice of rules, laws, and frameworks for the exercise of power in international relations as well as in its own domestic affairs. I rebut this criticism. The European Union's emphasis on rules, laws and frameworks does not exclude the use of the direst penalties, including military force, to ensure that the outcomes of those processes are respected, but it does create a framework of predictability in which those who might contemplate breaking the rules can rationally think through the consequences before it is too late.