Western Political Myths of War: Implications for Global Weapon Governance

This book explores how enduring meta-narratives shape international security policies, disarmament efforts, and arms control practices. Zooming-in on dominant political myths, this book critically examines their role in legitimizing and sustaining global weapon governance by influencing both national and international approaches to disarmament.

Through a multidisciplinary lens that combines international relations, security studies, political sociology, and political theory, the author provides a nuanced analysis of the symbolic and cultural underpinnings of warfare in contemporary global politics. Drawing on interpretive-qualitative research methodology, this book reveals how narrative structures not only justify and foster militarization but also shape the institutional frameworks that govern weapons and conflict prevention.

This timely contribution challenges dominant narratives and representations of war in disarmament and arms control, urging scholars, policymakers, and civil society actors to reimagine global security beyond entrenched mythologies. It offers a compelling perspective for those working in international security, peace and conflict studies, disarmament, cultural politics, and global governance.

Ideal for academic researchers, graduate students, and professionals engaged in international security policy and disarmament advocacy, this book delivers both theoretical insight and practical relevance. It encourages a deeper understanding of how storytelling, belief systems, and political heuristics and imaginations continue to influence the pursuit of peace in an increasingly militarized world.

Gabriel Mondragón Toledo is a professor at Universidad de las Américas Puebla and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, specializing in disarmament, cultural politics, and international security. With extensive experience as a political consultant on security issues in Mexico and Argentina, he has led international research initiatives on arms control in both Mexico and Germany. His work, widely published in global academic forums, examines the role of political myths in shaping the practices of war, disarmament, and arms control on the international stage.