In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, there were the all-too-unthinking, hasty responses signaling a desire for retaliatory violence. A notable exception was from Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. She simply wept at what has occurred, and I hope that all of us might be cleansed by her most human reaction.

Just a week and a half ago, Mogherini and others issued a joint statement on the European Day of Remembrance of victims of terrorism, which read, “Terrorists want us to be afraid. They try to spread hatred and fear, to create intolerance and to turn us against each other. This mentality has no place in our societies, our lives. . . . Only a political solution in Syria, the establishment of inclusive political governance in Iraq, the formation of a Government of National Accord in Libya, and the creation of conditions for a successful and stable National Unity Government in Afghanistan can really defeat terrorist groups.’’

The solutions are neither simple nor easy to achieve. It is obvious that no one nation will bring about the conditions of stability and peace that will, by their very nature, defeat terrorism. Only world cooperation will do this.

It is equally obvious that the terrorists themselves fear such peace and cooperation. They will attempt to drag the world into a morass of violence and retaliation, lawlessness and torture. Only we, by refusing to act upon the temptation to evil, can prevent this from occurring.

Maurice “Rick’’ Laurence, Newton