War and Genocide Organised Killing in Modern Society

by Shaw, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780745619071
• ISBN10: 074561907X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-09
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

This comprehensive introduction to the study of war and genocide presents a disturbing case that the potential for slaughter is deeply rooted in the political, economic, social and ideological relations of the modern world. Most accounts of war and genocide treat them as separate phenomena. This book thoroughly examines the links between these two most inhuman of human activities. It shows that the generally legitimate business of war and the monstrous crime of genocide are closely related. This is not just because genocide usually occurs in the midst of war, but because genocide is a form of war directed against civilian populations. The book shows how fine the line has been, in modern history, between ls"degenerate warrs" involving the mass destruction of civilian populations, and ls"genociders", the deliberate destruction of civilian groups as such. Written by one of the foremost sociological writers on war, War and Genocide has four main features: an original argument about the meaning and causes of mass killing in the modern world; a guide to the main intellectual resources military, political and social theories necessary to understand war and genocide; summaries of the main historical episodes of slaughter, from the trenches of the First World War to the Nazi Holocaust and the killing fields of Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda; practical guides to further reading, courses and websites. This book examines war and genocide together with their opposites, peace and justice. It looks at them from the standpoint of victims as well as perpetrators. It is an important book for anyone wanting to understand and overcome the continuing salience of destructive forces in modern society.

Author Biography

Professor of International Relations and Politics, University of Sussex

Table of Contents

Boxes	ix
Tables	xi
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction	1	(9)
The history of mass slaughter and its threat	2	(1)
Attitudes to war	3	(1)
The argument of this book	4	(3)
The organization of this book	7	(1)
Sources and resources	8	(2)
Episode 0 The trenches	10	(22)
1 War and slaughter	14	(18)
Mass killing	16	(2)
War	18	(5)
Degenerate war	23	(3)
Categories of violence	26	(2)
Revolution as war	28	(4)
Episode I The Armenian genocide	32	(22)
2 Genocide as a Form of War	34	(20)
Destruction	35	(3)
Intention	38	(3)
A form of war	41	(8)
On slaughter	49	(1)
Post-degenerate, anti-genocidal war?	50	(4)
Episode II Stalinism's mass murders	54	(24)
3 Organizing Violence	58	(20)
State power	58	(5)
Systems and politics	63	(3)
World war to world order?	66	(6)
Future wars	72	(6)
Episode III Nazism, war and the Holocaust	78	(20)
4 Producing Destruction	82	(16)
Industrialism and war	82	(9)
New technology, new war economy	91	(2)
Economy of slaughter zones	93	(5)
Episode IV Japan's genocidal wars	98	(28)
5 Thinking War	100	(26)
Ideologies of war and peace	101	(8)
Cultures of slaughter	109	(3)
Nations and nationalism	112	(3)
Race and gender	115	(3)
Media of war	118	(8)
Episode V Allied bombing in 1939-45	126	(19)
6 Killing spaces	128	(17)
Historical battlefields	128	(3)
Modern killing spaces	131	(5)
Global era slaughter spaces	136	(4)
Media as battlespace	140	(5)
Episode VI Nuclear war preparation	145	(21)
7 Combatants and Participants	147	(19)
Combatants and non-combatants	147	(2)
Armed forces	149	(4)
New killing forces	153	(2)
Social groups and war participation	155	(11)
Episode VII The Cambodian genocide	166	(24)
8 Victims	168	(22)
Victimhood and its appropriation	169	(2)
From battlefield to civilian death	171	(4)
Military logic in genocide	175	(1)
Ethnic and cosmopolitan victims	176	(2)
Gendered violence	178	(3)
Irrationality of slaughter	181	(9)
Episode VIII Genocidal war in Yugoslavia	190	(21)
9 Movements	194	(17)
Resistance	195	(2)
Movement	197	(7)
Change	204	(7)
Episode IX War and genocide in Rwanda	211	(27)
10 Just Peace	214	(24)
Old thinking about war	215	(2)
War management	217	(3)
Demands for justice	220	(8)
From slaughter to safety	228	(4)
Peace and cosmopolitan democracy	232	(6)
Episode X The new Western way of war	238	(5)
Conclusion	241	(2)
Index	243