The Political Life of Mary Kaldor

Although more than a little controversial, Mary Kaldor's academic work and ideas have both stimulated and influenced debate in the Pentagon, the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, and beyond. How did this come about? And how did Kaldor reach the conclusions outlined in her seminal books? Melinda Rankin traces the evolution of Kaldor's work, revealing how her thinking developed from her years as an antiwar activist and scholar in the 1970s-1980s, through her direct experiences of war in the Balkans and Caucasus, to her present support of armed humanitarian intervention to defend civilians from state and quasi-state violence.