Martin Shaw

Martin Shaw is Emeritus Professor of International Relations and Politics at the University of Sussex and Research Professor at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, and has written for openDemocracy over the last two decades. The author of many books on global politics, war and genocide, his Political Racism: Brexit and Its Aftermath will be published by Agenda in March 2022.

The trouble with guns: Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ireland

Jacob Zuma's inauguration as South Africa's new president on 9 May 2009 opened a new phase in the country's politics, following the victory of

By Martin Shaw

/ 10 Jun 2009

A century of genocide, 1915-2009

When Armenian leaders in Constantinople (now Istanbul) were massacred on 24 April 1915, it was the signal for killings and deportations of Armenians across eastern Anatolia, then the heartland of

By Martin Shaw

/ 23 Apr 2009

The Kosovo war: between two eras

Ten years ago, on 24 March 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) launched a bombing campaign against Serbia over the repression by the Slobodan Milosevic regime of the majority

By Martin Shaw

/ 1 Apr 2009

Sudan, the ICC and genocide: a fateful decision

It is by any standards a landmark decision. On 4 March 2009, three judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) chose to uphold the indictment of the president of Sudan,

By Martin Shaw

/ 11 Mar 2009

Uses of genocide: Kenya, Georgia, Israel, Sri Lanka

The accusation of "genocide" nowadays seems to accompany almost any episode of political violence and armed conflict around the world. In the last year alone, it has been

By Martin Shaw

/ 9 Feb 2009

Israel’s politics of war

Israel's intense three-week assault on Gaza halted with the calling of successive (if yet far from comprehensive or stable) ceasefires by Israel and Hamas on 17-18 January 2009.

By Martin Shaw

/ 20 Jan 2009

After the Georgia war: the challenge to citizen action

The war between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia on 8-12 August 2008 underlines the fundamental deterioration in the global political situation in the 2000s and the increasingly sharp choices

By Martin Shaw

/ 22 Sep 2008

My Lai to Haditha: war, massacre and justice

Forty years ago, on 16 March 1968, United States armed forces committed their most notorious massacre. In the course of one morning in My Lai, a hamlet in Vietnam, approximately

By Martin Shaw

/ 17 Mar 2008

The genocide file: reply to Anthony Dworkin

Anthony Dworkin writes in his response to my openDemocracy article "The International Court of Justice: Serbia, Bosnia, and genocide " (27 February 2007) that: Martin Shaw is here responding

By Martin Shaw

/ 6 Mar 2007

The International Court of Justice: Serbia, Bosnia, and genocide

The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case brought by Bosnia-Herzegovina against Serbia, delivered on 26 February 2007, is a compromise judgment, giving something to the

By Martin Shaw

/ 28 Feb 2007

Genocide: rethinking the concept

A routine feature of public discussion of large-scale, anti-civilian violence is that it is so important to protect the victims that time should not be wasted on arguing about how

By Martin Shaw

/ 1 Feb 2007

The myth of progressive war

When it comes to war, we do not need myths. The myth of a "liberal peace", in which pacified societies bring about unbounded freedom and progress, may be

By Martin Shaw

/ 11 Oct 2006