The study of socially-constructed masculinities and their relationship to violence reflects a healthy concern not to reduce the equation between men and violence to simple biological determinism. To suggest that violence is an inevitable outcome of social constructs of masculinity is also too static. Can flawed nurturing processes fully explain the capacity of individuals and indeed whole societies to shift between ‘cultures of violence’ and ‘cultures of peace’? Or does the state, through its actions or inactions, shape those cultures and the responses of individuals within them?