  We set up and analyze a model of radiation damping within the framework of
continuum mechanics, inspired by a model of post-Newtonian hydrodynamics due to
Blanchet, Damour and Schaefer. In order to simplify the problem as much as
possible we replace the gravitational field by the electromagnetic field and
the fluid by kinetic theory. We prove that the resulting system has a
well-posed Cauchy problem globally in time for general initial data and in all
solutions the fields decay to zero at late times. In particular, this means
that the model is free from the runaway solutions which frequently occur in
descriptions of radiation reaction.
