While we can gladly celebrate the fact that European nations now recognise the importance of peaceful diplomacy, it is historically inaccurate and misleading to put this solely down to the European project (Comment, 28 January). Any historical analysis of postwar Europe must take into account the vital role of Nato, the cold war and the US in preserving peace. We should also note the dismal failure of the EU to prevent conflicts in the Balkans and the civil strife which the Union's economic policies have created in the Mediterranean. The "criticism of Europe" that Frank-Walter Steinmeier attributes to nationalist rhetoric should not be so casually dismissed. The institutions of the EU remain opaque and unaccountable. Rather than turning their ire on those who complain about the lack of democracy in the EU, European leaders should accept the need for reform as an immediate priority.

Professor David Abulafia Gonville and Caius College Cambridge University, Dr David Starkey, Andrew Roberts, Professor Nigel Saul Royal Holloway, Dr Brian Young Christ Church, Oxford University, Dr Robert Crowcroft, University of Edinburgh, Dr Hannes Kleineke, Professor Robert Tombs St John's College, Cambridge University, Dr Richard Rex Queens' College, Cambridge University, Professor Jeremy Black University of Exeter

• What has generally ensured peace in Europe is the post-1945 development across Europe of normal democratic politics in almost every country. Democrats do not want to bash the daylights out of their neighbours. Let us never forget too that the principal aim of trans-Europeanism was to shackle Germany firmly into the community of nations for fear of German nationalism.

Michael Batchelor

Swansea

• The German foreign minister seems to have forgotten that in more recent wars the EU backed Nato's attacks on Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and that only Britain prevented an EU-Nato attack on Syria.

Will Podmore

London