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.
Category: war and peace
Britain and the Cold War exhibition
I'm featured in the 'What Lies Beneath' exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London.
Israel’s degenerate Lebanon campaign holds a mirror to the West’s own wars, 3 August 2006
first published at http://www.martinshaw.org/politics/lebanon2006.htm In the first days of the war in Lebanon, BBC news repeatedly referred to dying and fleeing Lebanese civilians as victims of the 'fighting' between Israel and Hizbullah. Yet in truth there was no fighting. Israel's planes rained destruction on Lebanon from the safety of high altitudes, killing and wounding with… Continue reading Israel’s degenerate Lebanon campaign holds a mirror to the West’s own wars, 3 August 2006
Lessons for the West from the Georgian War, Democratiya, Autumn 2008
from Democratiya, 14, 2008 - http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d14Shaw-1.pdf Martin Shaw The August war in Georgia underlines the fundamental deterioration in the global political situation in the 2000s and the increasingly sharp choices facing the democratic left. The easy bit is to condemn Russian aggression against Georgian cities and there has been no shortage of Western political figures… Continue reading Lessons for the West from the Georgian War, Democratiya, Autumn 2008
Globality, War, Revolution: An Interview with Martin Shaw, Democratiya, 2005
Martin Shaw is a sociologist of war and global politics and holds the Chair of International Relations and Politics at the University of Sussex. He studied Sociology at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1968. Martin has been a member of the International Socialists (1965-1976), the Labour Party (1979- ) and the European Nuclear… Continue reading Globality, War, Revolution: An Interview with Martin Shaw, Democratiya, 2005
Why I didn’t sign the Euston Manifesto, Democratiya, 2006
First published on Democratiya, http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d6Letters.pdf Letters page The Euston Manifesto has caused a stir beyond its modest origins and list of signatories, because for once the options for the left seem to transcend the choice between bankrupt Blairism, its prospective Brownite reincarnation and the predictable certitudes of the reactionary left. As one of the latter's… Continue reading Why I didn’t sign the Euston Manifesto, Democratiya, 2006
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
India-Pakistan: the new empires square off, 29 May 2002
from http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/justpeace/martinshawwrites.htm The depth of the historic turning-point of 2001-2 is fearfully underlined by the latest news from the sub-continent. The latest link in the chain of events that began with 9/11, continued with the Afghanistan war and saw an ever-more barbarous Palestine-Israel war threatens to dwarf them all. All-out war threatens between two of… Continue reading India-Pakistan: the new empires square off, 29 May 2002
Martin Shaw 