Three new contributions, on related themes, to the new issue of Journal of Genocide Research: 1. Jürgen Matthäus; Martin Shaw; Omer Bartov; Doris Bergen; Donald Bloxham, Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution: A Genocide (review forum), 13, 1 and 2, 2011, 107 - 152. Read a draft of my contribution. 2. Martin Shaw, Jeffrey Alexander et al., Remembering the Holocaust:… Continue reading The Holocaust, Stalin’s genocides and the future of genocide research
The Killing of Bin Laden: Revenge but not Justice
With the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama has achieved a much-needed conclusion to nearly ten years' efforts to bring the mastermind of 9/11 to heel. Obama claimed to bring bin Laden 'to justice'. But he managed this only in the sense that George Bush evoked in 2001, when he said that bin Laden… Continue reading The Killing of Bin Laden: Revenge but not Justice
The Arab Spring: Protest, Power, Prospect
My contribution to this new openDemocracy forum. What a difference six weeks make. In mid-February 2011, largely peaceful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt seemed to be spreading throughout the Arab world, notably in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. In early April, Bahrain has seen repeated violent repression, Yemen massacres of protesters, and the Libyan revolution has… Continue reading The Arab Spring: Protest, Power, Prospect
Libya: popular revolt, military intervention
Published on openDemocracy, 7 April 2011. This replaces an earlier draft published on this site. In mid-February 2011, the protests which began the Libyan revolution seemed to demonstrate the unstoppable progress of people power. It seemed that even Gaddafi’s kleptocratic and personalised regime - which unlike Tunisia or Egypt never allowed space for civil society… Continue reading Libya: popular revolt, military intervention
The global democratic revolution: a new stage
My take on the historic significance of the Arab revolutions on openDemocracy.net (written before the unfolding of the Libyan crisis). The epic events across the Arab world in the first months of 2011, diverse and many-sided as they are, can be understood as a single episode: the latest phase in the worldwide democratic revolution which… Continue reading The global democratic revolution: a new stage
Darfur: counter-insurgency, forced displacement and genocide
New article published in the British Journal of Sociology, 62, 1, 2011. Click here to view a draft version.
Israel, the spectre of 1948, and genocide scholars (2)
The genocide psychologist, Israel Charny, having read my exchange with Omer Bartov in the Journal of Genocide Research, first posted an abusive, defamatory rant against me (on the International Association of Genocide listserve), including accusing me of ‘anti-Semitism’. The President of the IAGS, Professor William Schabas, quickly apologized for the inadvertent publication of this abuse.… Continue reading Israel, the spectre of 1948, and genocide scholars (2)
Israel, the spectre of 1948, and genocide scholars (1)
Readers of this blog may be aware that in a recent article I discussed the 1948 removal of the Arab population of Palestine within a genocide perspective, and subsequently debated this with the US-based Israeli historian, Omer Bartov. The fall-out from these contributions has continued, and it is time to update and draw some conclusions,… Continue reading Israel, the spectre of 1948, and genocide scholars (1)
The USA’s dangerous allies
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
Street politics, violence, media
An edited version of this post appeared on openDemocracy, 7 December 2010 ‘The relationship to violence is also much better, as shown by the spontaneous revulsion of the demonstrators against throwing the fire extinguisher at Millbank. There is an understanding of the need for no willed violence against people. Doubtless provocateurs will try and spoil… Continue reading Street politics, violence, media
Martin Shaw 