(A still from Vote Leave's TV ad. Fair use.) Boris Johnson’s weaponisation of the burqa came on the heels of new revelations about the propaganda strategy of the Vote Leave campaign which he fronted in the 2016 referendum. I argued at the time that Vote Leave’s official television advertisement, the most high-profile item of Leave… Continue reading Truly Project Hate: the third scandal of the official Vote Leave campaign headed by Boris Johnson
Genocide is generally conceived of as violence by centralised perpetrators, usually states and regimes, towards whole population groups. In the last two decades, however, there has been more emphasis on the typical complexity of perpetrator forces, including the roles of ancillary states, paramilitaries and even civilians. Few, however, have looked unremittingly at genocide from the… Continue reading Anatomy of a Genocide by Omer Bartov – review
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is unusual even in the realm of international criminal law, where enforcement is generally limited due to the priority of state sovereignty and the weakness of international policing and judicial authorities. The Convention, adopted by the United Nations on 9 December 1948, defines… Continue reading The Soviet Union and the Gutting of the Genocide Convention: review
All 57 minutes of my recent talk 'The Problem of Genocide (In War and Terrorism)' at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), University of St Andrews, can be listened to here.
I have coauthored the following article: Goldberg, Amos; Kehoe, Thomas J.; Moses, A. Dirk; Segal, Raz; Shaw, Martin; and Wolf, Gerhard (2016) "Israel Charny’s Attack on the Journal of Genocide Research and its Authors: A Response," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 10: Iss. 2: 3-22. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.10.2.1436. Available at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol10/iss2/4. View article here Abstract: Israel Charny has published… Continue reading Response to claims of ‘bias’ in genocide research
What do anti-Tory voters do where Conservatives have a more or less complete grip on all levels of government, despite only getting a minority of the votes? Where has Labour's abandonment of its local voters - by failing to reform the electoral system, a failure that neither Corbyn nor Smith is really concerned about -… Continue reading We need to talk about Devon
The progressive crowdsourcing campaign organisation 38 Degrees, which was neutral during the EU referendum, has been carrying out a consultation on to devise the terms of a 'people-powered Brexit' (or 'DIY Brexit'). In a debate on openDemocracy with 38 Degrees' David Babbs, I have criticised the group's original neutrality, its quick switch to an embrace… Continue reading 38 Degrees of Brexit
Labour's crisis has become existential. Jeremy Corbyn's election last year galvanised an expanded membership to participate in the party's affairs, but has had only a very modest wider impact. Although the sabotage of some on Labour's right is partly to blame, Corbyn has not responded well to the huge challenges of leading the party. I see this… Continue reading Corbyn’s Brexit failure, Labour’s crisis
New on openDemocracy The International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS) is holding a conference in Jerusalem this weekend. The initiative has attracted an attack by Israel Charny in the Jerusalem Post under the lurid heading, ‘Genocide scholars who minimize the Holocaust – and some who are coming to town’. This summarised his article published in… Continue reading Why I’m not discussing genocide in Jerusalem
My latest post on openDemocracy: If the B in Brexit stands for Boris and his overweening ambition, the R is for Racism, the method through which Vote Leave aims to achieve the political upset of the century. In ITV’s two-hour debate, Johnson waffled on about democracy and an ‘Australian-style points system’, his latest migration-management wheeze… Continue reading BREXIT: The R is for Racism
Martin Shaw 