Genocidal Massacres and the ‘Rarity’ of Genocide Martin Shaw Contribution to the review forum on Jacques Sémelin, Purify and Destroy (London: Hurst, 2007), Journal of Genocide Research, 11, 3, March 2009, pp. 149-63. The paradox of genocide studies is that while an enormous growth in the literature is producing ever richer case and comparative studies,… Continue reading Review of Jacques Sémelin, Purify and Destroy, Journal of Genocide Research, 2009
Review of Chirot and McCauley, Why Not Kill Them All? in Contemporary Sociology, 2007
Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Murder, by Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 288 pp. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-691-09296-6. Martin Shaw University of Sussex m.shaw@sussex.ac.uk There has been such a rush of general and comparative books on genocide and political violence in recent years that… Continue reading Review of Chirot and McCauley, Why Not Kill Them All? in Contemporary Sociology, 2007
Review of Goldhagen, Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, for International Affairs, 2010
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, New York: Little Brown, 2009, 658 pp. ISBN 978-1-58648 -769-0 After a rush of major texts in the last few years, another massive tome on genocide needs a distinctive take if it is to find an audience. Daniel Goldhagen's new book… Continue reading Review of Goldhagen, Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, for International Affairs, 2010
Review of Meirsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, published in The Political Quarterly, 2008
John J. Meirsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, London: Allen Lane, 2007, 484 pp, £25, ISBN 978-1-846-14007-5 Many readers will have caught the trail of The Israel Lobby, the expansion of Meirsheimer and Walt's controversial London Review of Books article - published here in 2006 after the Stateside Atlantic… Continue reading Review of Meirsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, published in The Political Quarterly, 2008
Israel’s Degenerate War in Gaza
Martin Shaw I have referred to the Gaza 'war' in my title but we might question whether it really deserves this label. Hamas have managed to kill only 6 Israeli soldiers, only 2 more than the Israelis themselves with 'friendly fire'. Their rockets have killed 3 more Israeli civilians: this side of their activity is… Continue reading Israel’s Degenerate War in Gaza
Yet more on Israel and anti-Semitism
As our debate about 'anti-Semitism' in the opposition to Israel winds down, Norman Geras thinks he has found another weakness in my argument, in my agreement with 'the sociological truth that racism is not only a matter of overt expressions of hostility, but can also inhere in symbols, discourses and practices of discrimination. Still, in… Continue reading Yet more on Israel and anti-Semitism
A final (?) reply to Norman Geras
Norman Geras responds to my last post to the effect that I haven't responded to several of his points. Here they are (as he now summarises them) with my responses: (a) A central point, indeed the main burden, of my post was that there are symbols, discourses and, above all, practices of prejudicial discrimination, and… Continue reading A final (?) reply to Norman Geras
The new anti-anti-semitism
In recent months I have become publicly engaged for the first time with the issues surrounding Israel and Palestine - although obviously I have long held private views about this conflict. On the first page of my book What is Genocide? (Polity 2007) I wrote, among several examples of how past genocides figure in current… Continue reading The new anti-anti-semitism
Lessons for the West from the Georgian War
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 queuing up to do this. The difficult bit… Continue reading Lessons for the West from the Georgian War
Theory of the global state revisited
A book is rather like a child: once you give birth to it, it has a life of its own. So to discover a highly critical review, which appeared shortly after publication, of a book you published 8 years ago is a bit like finding out that your child got into trouble when it was… Continue reading Theory of the global state revisited
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