Mary Kaldor is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance and a Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. An expert on security and civil society, she has researched and written exclusively about these topics, and has written for openDemocracy on Iraq and the issue of terrorism.

Kaldor is also the co-chair of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly and the Governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. She has published a number of books, including Global Civil Society: An Answer to War (2003), New & Old Wars (1999) and The Imaginary War: Understanding the East-West Conflict (1990).

After graduating with a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, Mary Kaldor was a Scholar at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Since then she has held positions as the Jean Monnet Reader in Contemporary European Studies, and as a Research Fellow, Associate Fellow and Senior Fellow at the University of Sussex.

Recent articles

Human security ought to be the goal of any Obama surge in Afghanistan, not defeat of Al Qaeda.

The financial crisis is not just a result of mis-aligned incentives and bad regulation. A neo-Schumpeterian view suggests that this epochal shift is the start of a re-shaping of institutions and power distribution to fit the world of information technology and clean energy. It will need guiding, argues Mary Kaldor.

The Pentagon could change from Terror Warrior to Human Security agent. It needs the Presidential direction to do so.

Arguments for and against independence should be judged pragmatically, against a criterion of safety and end to violence. This humanitarian perspective releases us from the dilemmas of sovereignty and status-based approaches, argues Mary Kaldor.

The search for a political solution to the decades-old Cyprus problem is at a delicate stage. It needs a push, say Mient Jan Faber & Mary Kaldor.