Both QED and the kinetic theory of plasmas are concerned with the interaction between charged particles and the electromagnetic field, but they are radically different in the way the interaction is described. The kinetic theory of plasmas is a collective-medium theory: a plasma is not a collection of independent particles in a given electromagnetic field, but a medium in which the particles collectively modify the field, and the field modifies the particles. The charge and current densities associated with the particles are part of a self-consistent field. Conventionally, the kinetic theory of plasmas is a classical theory: the motions of particles are treated using classical dynamics.