Why do politicians think that war is the answer to terror when military intervention in Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan Syria Mali Somalia and elsewhere has made things worse Why do some conflicts never end And how is it that practices like beheadings extrajudicial killings the bombing of hospitals and schools and sexual slavery are becoming increasingly common In this book renowned scholar of war and human security Mary Kaldor introduces the concept of global security cultures in order to explain why we get stuck in particular pathways to security. A global security culture she explains involves different combinations of ideas narratives rules people tools practices and infrastructure embedded in a specific form of political authority a set of power relations that come together to address or engage in largescale violence. In contrast to the Cold War period when there was one dominant culture based on military forces and nationstates nowadays there are competing global security cultures.