In the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq, there has been much debate about the international military balance and the apparent desire of the United States, the only remaining world superpower, to become some sort of world policeman. On a number of occasions this House has debated the Iraqi crisis and the issues arising from it and, presumably, will continue to do so. One clear issue arising from that debate, however, was that the European Union was not united on Iraq and, when push came to shove, was in no position to offer any type of leadership. Had there been European unity on Iraq it may well have averted the crisis but instead we had the so-called old Europe versus new Europe internal debate. I suspect that in years to come other Iraqi-style situations will face the European Union but unless we can make genuine progress on building strong and unanimous European security and defence co-operation, it will be sidelined again. If we succeed in building such co-operation, however, it can provide a necessary political counterbalance to Washington, as well as playing a constructive role in conflict resolution and confidence building worldwide.