Martin Shaw is a historical sociologist of war and global politics, and professor of international relations and politics at the University of Sussex. His books include War and Genocide (Polity, 2003), The New Western Way of War (Polity, 2005), and What is Genocide? (Polity, 2007). His website is here

Recent articles

What kind of violence has the Sri Lankan state been committing against its Tamil civilian population as the island‘s civil war ended; on what scale and with what intentions? Martin Shaw explores the difficult terrain where war, atrocity and genocide meet.

The use of violence as an instrument of political liberation leads rather to failure and regression, says Martin Shaw.

The Ottoman-era massacres of the Armenians also belong to a century of "mass-death" episodes forged in war, state rivalry, ethnic targeting and expulsion, says Martin Shaw. 

The Nato assault that prised Kosovo from Slobodan Milosevic's grip in March-June 1999 has been overshadowed by the Iraq war four years later. It deserves renewed attention both as the last of the major ex-Yugoslav conflicts and as a pioneering example of modern "risk-transfer war", says Martin Shaw.

(This article was first published on 31 March 2009)