In the introductory chapter to this volume we have suggested the analysis of contemporary security studies as a series of complex interconnections, the so-called protocols of war, that shape and structure forms of international and transnational security. To capture the challenges and developments in the area of international security, widely discussed in the subject literature but presented in a rather descriptive and normative manner, we have intended to offer in this volume an analytical framework which encompasses the increasing impact of new technologies, roles performed by combatants and non-state actors in contemporary warfare, variation among legal and would-be-legalised forms of violence, impact of the market economy and differentiation of cultural explanations of ongoing conflicts. We wished to pay due attention to the normative aspects accompanying technological factors and ethical issues. When the protocols of modern war are opened and run on different levels of contemporary conflicts and crises, they do not operate in a legal vacuum, even if sources of their legitimisation are vague, questionable or diffused. Often the states, international organisations or NGOs are unable, and in some cases unwilling, to move forward in their quest for a better understanding of conflicts they are engaged in. They prefer to neglect the sense and substance of the protocols of war and ignore the whole range of actors involved in hostilities and warfare.