Understanding the nature of the 'cold war' that followed World War II is now more than ever a focus of debate. Security Metaphors starts from the premise that political and international realities are created, sustained and unraveled in discourse. The book begins by examining the conceptual underpinnings of international relations theory, and by careful linguistic analysis shows how metaphorical discourse contributed to the beginning and ending of the dangerous competition between 'East' and 'West'. It concludes not by attributing power to language, but to the hegemonic power that can best wield it.