Martin Shaw (born 30 June 1947 in Driffield,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England) is a British sociologist and academic. He is a

research professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

at the

Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals The Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) (Spanish: ''Instituto Barcelona de Estudios Internacionales'', English: ''Barcelona Institute of International Studies'') is an interuniversity research institute and postgraduate education c ...

, emeritus professor of international relations and politics at

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

and a professorial fellow in international relations and human rights at Roehampton University. He is best known for his sociological work on war,

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

and global politics.

Academic career

In his

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

period in the 1970s, Shaw published ''Marxism versus Sociology: A Guide to Reading'' and ''Marxism and Social Science: The Roots of Social Science''. However, he developed a critique of Marxism, which he saw as incapable of fully analysing the problem of war, as he argued in ''Socialism and Militarism''. He pioneered a new sociology of war and militarism, in his edited volume, ''War, State and Society'' and in ''Dialectics of War''. In the 1990s he published two studies in this area: ''Post-Military Society'' and ''Civil Society and Media in Global Crises'', a study of British responses to the

1991 Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. Shaw also entered debates in international relations, with his co-edited book ''State and Society in International Relations'' (1991) and his books ''Global Society and International Relations'' and ''Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution''. He founde
The Global Site
(2000), a portal for critical writing on global politics, culture and society, which also became a significant forum for academic debate after

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. In the 2000s, Shaw's research returned to questions of war, now extended into the field of genocide, with four books: ''War and Genocide'', ''The New Western Way of War: Risk-Transfer War and its Crisis in Iraq'' ''What is Genocide?'' and ''Genocide and International Relations''. In the late 2010s, Shaw's work turned to questions of racism and British politics, and he published ''Political Racism: Brexit and Its Aftermath'', Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda, 2022. Shaw was appointed a lecturer in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

(1970–72) and was lecturer, senior lecturer and reader in sociology at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

(1972–94) before becoming professor of international and political sociology (1994). The following year Shaw moved to a chair of

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, where he became a research professor in 2008. He joined Roehampton University in 2010 and the

in 2011. He was a

Leverhulme Fellow The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...

in 2000 and an

ESRC The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...

research fellow in 2004 and 2005.

Activities, commentary and research

He was active in

European Nuclear Disarmament European Nuclear Disarmament (END) was a Europe-wide movement for a "nuclear-free Europe from Poland to Portugal” that put on annual European Nuclear Disarmament conventions from 1982 to 1991. Origins The founding statement of END was the Eur ...

(1980–85) and a member of its national committee, as well as in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He criticised what he saw as the passivity of the political left in the face of the genocidal wars in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

(1992–95) and

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

(1998–99). He continues his political commentary by writing for the website openDemocracy.openDemocracy
Martin Shaw
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References

External links

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Martin Shaw on TwitterThe Global Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Martin 1947 births Academics of Durham University Academics of the University of Hull Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of the London School of Economics British sociologists Academics of the University of Roehampton English socialists Living people Socialist Workers Party (UK) members Members of Devon County Council People from Driffield Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates