My surprising local angle on Britain's 2015 General Election. At the last election, in 2010, I was in Brighton, and my comment on the battle between Caroline Lucas' Greens and Labour was much-read. This time I'm in East Devon, where local campaigns against property development and hospital closures, and for local democracy, are having an impact which… Continue reading Development resistance threatens election upset in Devon
Against the proposed Europe-wide legal ban on genocide denial
I published this letter in the Guardian on 27 January 2015 (scroll down for my letter): 'The proposals of a European Council on Toleration and Reconciliation report for a Europe-wide ban on genocide denial, as part of a swathe of new legal measures (Jewish groups want EU ban on intolerance, 26 January), are highly problematic. First,… Continue reading Against the proposed Europe-wide legal ban on genocide denial
Global State Formation in the 21st Century
In 2000 I published a book, Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution which revised the terms of the debate about the state, arguing that the dominant state form in today's world is a 'Western state conglomerate' led by the USA but combining many 'nation-states' and international organisations. Together with the 'global layer' of… Continue reading Global State Formation in the 21st Century
BBC: You can’t indict Rwanda’s government by denying the 1994 genocide
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is recognised by all who have studied it seriously as one of the largest-scale, most concentrated episodes of mass murder in the last century. About 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis but also Hutus who opposed the Hutu Power regime, were killed in a matter of weeks. Frequently compared to the Armenian… Continue reading BBC: You can’t indict Rwanda’s government by denying the 1994 genocide
Audio interview about ‘Genocide and International Relations’
My podcast interview about Genocide and International Relations on New Books in Genocide Studies is online at http://newbooksingenocidestudies.com/2014/08/08/martin-shaw-genocide-and-international-relations-cambridge-up-2013/
Daniel Feierstein, ‘Reorganising Genocide’ and Argentina (review)
Daniel Feierstein, Genocide as a Social Practice: Reorganizing Society under the Nazis and Argentina’s Military Juntas. Translated from Spanish (Argentine) by Douglas Andrew Town. Rutgers University Press, 2014. Daniel Feierstein sent me an advance copy of the English translation of Genocidio como Practicio Social, his study of the Nazis and the Argentine military junta as… Continue reading Daniel Feierstein, ‘Reorganising Genocide’ and Argentina (review)
New chapter on global policy towards genocide
I have a chapter on 'Genocide and Large-Scale Human Rights Violations' in Mary Kaldor and Iavor Rangelov's new Handbook of Global Security Policy. It's a pretty pessimistic chapter, as I record the way in which the emergence of global policy towards genocide has been confined by geopolitics. Developments since I wrote, such as today's widespread… Continue reading New chapter on global policy towards genocide
Boycotting Israel: the situation has changed and I have changed my mind too
My new article published on openDemocracy. Some additional comments, not in the openDemocracy version, are indicated by italics. Israel’s slaughter in Gaza must make us all pause and ask whether we should rethink our stance on the Palestine conflict. The killing is presented as a regrettable response to Hamas’s provocations, an almost routine police action… Continue reading Boycotting Israel: the situation has changed and I have changed my mind too
Russia-Israel: domestic politics and serious blowback
Posted on openDemocracy.net The Ukraine and Gaza crises alike demonstrate the risks of aggressive policy based on short-term calculations. Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu's war-as-politics invites damaging long-term consequences. The slaughters in Ukraine and Gaza have one thing in common. Both result from governments authorising violence which is overwhelmingly motivated by domestic politics and appears… Continue reading Russia-Israel: domestic politics and serious blowback
Genocide, Risk and Resilience
I have a chapter, 'The Concept of Genocide: What Are We Preventing?' in a new book edited by Bert Ingelaere, Stephan Parmentier, Jacques Haers and Barbara Segaert, GENOCIDE, RISK AND RESILIENCE: An Interdisciplinary Approach, just out from Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978 1 137 33242 4 'This collection adopts an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand… Continue reading Genocide, Risk and Resilience
Martin Shaw 