Editing The Culture (section)

===Criticism===
Examples are the use of mercenaries to perform the work that the Culture does not want to get their hands dirty with, and even outright threats of invasion (the Culture has issued ultimatums to other civilisations before). Some commentators have also argued that those Special Circumstances agents tasked with civilising foreign cultures (and thus potentially also changing them into a blander, more Culture-like state) are also those most likely to regret these changes, with parallels drawn to real-world special forces trained to operate within the cultural mindsets of foreign nations.{{sfn|Brown|2001}}

The events of ''Use of Weapons'' are an example of just how dirty Special Circumstances will play in order to get their way and the conspiracy at the heart of the plot of ''Excession'' demonstrates how at least some Minds are prepared to risk killing sentient beings when they conclude that these actions are beneficial for the long term good. Special Circumstances represents a very small fraction of Contact, which itself is only a small fraction of the entire Culture, making it comparable again to size and influence of modern [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] agencies.