LIT6: Shaw, M. (2002). “Risk-transfer militarism, small massacres and the historic legitimacy of war”. International Relations 16(3), pp.343-359.

Question 1

What is Shaw’s relegitimation of War?

Answer 1

The article discusses how the initial success in the ‘war against terrorism’ seems to reinforce the legitimacy of war in Western societies, a trend that has been increasing over the past two decades.

Question 2

What is Shaw’s Risk-Transfer war

Answer 2

Shaw identifies the war in Afghanistan as an example of a new Western way of war, characterized by transferring the risk to civilians, which he terms as “risk-transfer war”

Question 3

What is Militarism of Small Massacres

Answer 3

A central feature of this new type of war is what Shaw calls “militarism of small massacres,” where the systematic targeting of civilians forms an intrinsic part of warfare.