Despite continuing difficulties, European institutions for the management of civilÐmilitary operations have developed to the stage where more than brief, tentative experiments can be embarked upon with some confidence. The greatest challenges faced by the EU are not in the efficacious employment of armed force, but rather in formulating and applying the broader political-military strategy which must underlie it. Outside of Europe, the most efficient way for European governments to contribute to international peace operations will be to assign national contingents directly to UN peacekeeping missions. It is, thus, time for European governments, militaries and populations to get over the trauma of Srebrenica and related UN failures in the Balkans in the early 1990s, take on board the subsequent improvement in the UN's performance, and begin once again to do their share in manning, as they are already doing in paying for, these efforts.