The aim of the article is to show the usefulness of the concept of strategic culture in analyzing the problems of state security and defense. At the outset, the authors of the article present the precursors of thinking in terms of strategic culture in the history of social thought, as well as the not-so-distant origins of this concept. They characterize key approaches to strategic culture from the perspective of the first generation of researchers: Jack Snyder, Ken Booth and Colin S. Gray. They show the importance of strategic culture as an analytical category in the assessment of the behavior of states representing social and cultural entities. They also indicate some limitations and weaknesses of the discussed positions in analyzing security problems. Finally, they emphasize the importance of cultural variables in strategic analyzes of state security and defense and the legitimacy of developing research on strategic culture within the framework of security and defense sciences.