draft of new contribution to openDemocracy Many on the left think of the United States as a dangerous force in world politics, a view encouraged by the aggressive interventionism of the Bush administration. Yet the juggernaut of US military power usually moves slowly, and after the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, probably with some caution.… Continue reading The USA’s dangerous allies
Category: Afghanistan
Iraq, war and WikiLeaks: the real story
After the war logs, my latest take (on openDemocracy) on the scale of, various causes of and responsibility for civilian casualties in Iraq in the seven years since the US-UK intervention.
Ten Challenges to Anti-War Politics, November 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/111shaw.htm Published in Radical Philosophy 111 (Jan/Feb 2002), pp. 11-19 It is said that generals always fight yesterday's war, but this is even truer of anti-war movements. Although the 'war against terrorism' is billed as a 'new kind of war', the anti-war rhetoric has seemed even more familiar than the military practice. In this… Continue reading Ten Challenges to Anti-War Politics, November 2001
A regressive crystallization of global state power: theorising a response to the ‘war against terrorism’, 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/press/109shaw.htm Martin Shaw International Relations and Politics, University of Sussex m.shaw@sussex.ac.uk Contents: Introduction; Theoretical foundations; The third Western war of the global era; Conclusions Introduction As the world lurches into what is called a new type of war, everyone inevitably falls back on old emotional, moral and intellectual resources for their sense of what… Continue reading A regressive crystallization of global state power: theorising a response to the ‘war against terrorism’, 2001
Risk-transfer militarism: the new Western way of war, 13 Nov. 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/201shaw.htm The US's war in Afghanistan is seen by opponents as 'indiscriminate', by its supporters as 'targeted' violence. But both of these claims are too simple. The new Western way of war is a clever reinvention of the reliance on airpower that has been central to Anglo-American military thought and practice since the 1920s.… Continue reading Risk-transfer militarism: the new Western way of war, 13 Nov. 2001
Justice for the victims of massacre and war, 17 October 2001
Martin Shaw speech to 17 October 2001 meeting at the University of Sussex I speak to you today as a scholar of war and genocide, but also as someone who tries to think and act as a citizen of the world. For me, the causing of harm to innocents anywhere is one of the most… Continue reading Justice for the victims of massacre and war, 17 October 2001
The third way 22 September 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/martinshawwrites.htm We will bring them to justice, or we will bring justice to them', promised President George W. Bush in his address to Congress on 21 September. And to other states, at least - but by implication also to any internal critics - he directed the stern message: 'You are either with us or… Continue reading The third way 22 September 2001
The West has made itself responsible for the starving Afghan children 23 September 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/martinshawwrites.htm No American soldier is yet (openly) on Afghan soil, or even an American plane overhead. But already our TV screens are beginning to be filled with piteous pictures of the starving Afghan children. This starvation is patently not, at the present time, the fault of the United States or the West except in… Continue reading The West has made itself responsible for the starving Afghan children 23 September 2001
Decadence and airpower, 31 October 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/martinshawwrites.htm 'They have one hope: that we are decadent, that we lack the moral fibre or will or courage to take them on.' Tony Blair 30 October 2001 No one doubts the will of Mr Blair, or President Bush, to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban, although many question if they really have a workable… Continue reading Decadence and airpower, 31 October 2001
The fall of Kabul: challenges of liberation, 13 November 2001
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/martinshawwrites.htm With the Taliban's abandonment of Kabul, the West is beginning to proclaim the liberation of Afghanistan. The cassette players come out and the beards off, a payoff from the B52s. As Polly Toynbee put it in response to this column's criticisms: bombing is unheroic but effective. For the third time in a decade,… Continue reading The fall of Kabul: challenges of liberation, 13 November 2001
Martin Shaw 