Territorial Threat Research Articles

Assessment of landscape visual fragility in the Natural Protected Area Sierra de las Nieves (southern Spain)

Visual fragility is a fundamental analysis of landscape quality, especially for protected natural areas highly valued for their biodiversity, geodiversity and cultural heritage. This is the case of the Sierra de las Nieves Protected Natural Area, located in southern Spain, declared a national park in 2021 and which brings together outstanding natural systems. Its aesthetic character is a key point for both the local population and visitors, so phenomena such as fire pose a territorial threat. This study analyses which are the most fragile landscapes from a visual point of view. Thus, using spatial analysis techniques in GIS, the landscape units were delimited and their visual fragility was evaluated considering a 5x5m DEM of spatial resolution and defining visual basins from geolocated points along the road network, which included paved roads, unpaved roads and official trails of the study area. The results indicate a broad spatial variability in visual fragility depending on the observation point, throughout the natural area, although the landscapes with the highly valued forests of Abies pinsapo Boiss. and Quercus alpestris showed the greatest fragility, especially those located in the central, southern and eastern sectors over 900 m above sea level. These results contribute to managing the areas most exposed to threats with a visual impact, such as fire, which can negatively influence the aesthetic character of the landscapes of the Sierra de las Nieves.

Similar behavioral but different endocrine responses to conspecific interactions in hand-raised wolves and dogs

Domestication has altered dogs' conspecific social organization compared to their closest, non-domesticated relatives, gray wolves. Wolves live in packs whose survival depends on coordinated behavior, but dogs rely less on conspecifics, which predicts greater cohesiveness in wolf than dog packs. Endocrine correlates such as oxytocin and glucocorticoids modulate group cohesion resulting in species-specific differences in social interactions. We found that although wolves' and dogs' observable behavioral reactions to a territorial threat and separation from the pack were similar, hormonal responses differed. Wolves' but not dogs' oxytocin and glucocorticoid concentrations correlated positively with territorial behaviors and only wolves showed increased glucocorticoid concentrations after separation from their pack. Together, results suggest stronger emotional activation to threats to group integrity in wolves than dogs, in line with their socio-ecology.

A Random Item Response Model of External Territorial Threat, 1816–2010

Abstract Multiple scholars have shown that external territorial threat, conceptually the level of concern for a state that its territorial integrity is subject to violent conflict and imposed contraction by other states, has major implications for the state's domestic political environment. However, the strand of scholarship that agrees on the domestic political effects of external territorial threat disagrees on how to code this important concept. These works either rely on binary indicators that do a poor job communicating “increasing” or “decreasing” territorial threat or use dyad-year indicators of conflict propensities as a stand-in for a state-year-level observation. I use this research note to offer an empirical measurement of state-year external territorial threat from a Bayesian random item response model for all states from 1816 to 2010. I assess the face validity and construct validity of the data these models generate, all of which suggest the measure does well to capture the concept in question. I close with a statement of the availability of the data and their potential applications.

Intruder familiarity and not duet similarity influences the territory defense in a year-round territorial bird species

To avoid unnecessary energy expenditures in territorial defense, many species (e.g., insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals) have developed the capability to distinguish between different intruder types using visual, acoustic, and/or chemical signals. Determining the mechanism used for intruder recognition is key to understanding the dynamics of territorial behaviors. In birds that use vocalizations for territorial defense, the frequency and duration of vocalizations or the familiarity with the intruder may be the main mechanism used for intruder recognition. Here, we conducted a playback experiment with territorial White-eared Ground-sparrows (Melozone leucotis), to analyze if territorial pairs recognize intruders using frequency and duration characteristics (a bird's response is based on how structurally similar the intruders' duets are to their own) or by familiarity with the intruders (neighbors vs. non-neighbors). We focused on duets because this species uses duets exclusively for territorial defense. We broadcasted a duet from a territorial neighbor, two duets from non-neighbors (with different frequency and duration characteristics), and a duet from a control species in 39 territorial pair from three populations. During playback we measured five behavioral responses: latency of the first vocalization, latency of the approach to the speaker, time spent close the speaker (within 5 ​m), number of individuals that approached the speaker, and the number of vocalizations. We found that territorial White-eared Ground-sparrow pairs responded stronger to neighbors than non-neighbors, and this response is not influenced by duet duration or frequency characteristics. This result suggests that neighbors represent a greater territorial threat for White-eared Ground-sparrows than non-neighbors. Further work is necessary to understand how common this observation is for tropical species that defend small territories year-round.

The Logic of Criminal Territorial Control: Military Intervention in Rio de Janeiro

How do organized criminal groups (OCGs) respond to military interventions intended to weaken and subdue them? In many cases, such crackdowns have proven counterproductive as OCGs militarize, engage in violence, and confront state forces directly. Existing studies have pointed to several explanations: inter-criminal competition, unconditional militarized approaches, and existing criminal governance arrangements. Much of this work, however, has focused on national, regional, or even municipal level variation and explanations. This article takes a micro-comparative approach based on 18 months of ethnographic research in a group of Rio de Janeiro favelas (impoverished and informal neighborhoods) divided between three drug trafficking gangs and occupied by the Brazilian military from 2014 to 2015. It argues that an active territorial threat from a rival is the primary mechanism leading OCGs to respond violently to military intervention. It also demonstrates that geographic patterns of recruitment play an important role in where OCG rivalries turn violent during intervention.

Latent territorial threat and democratic regime reversals

Why do some democracies revert to non-democratic forms of governance? We develop an explanation of democratic reversals that emphasizes the influence of states’ external border relations on domestic politics. Latent threats to a state’s territory encourage political centralization of authority in the executive to defend against danger to the homeland. Latent territorial threat also facilitates the construction and maintenance of large land armies to fight threatening neighbors. Combined, latent territorial threat increases leaders’ domestic power, weakens democratic institutions, encourages other conditions threatening democratic survival, and, ultimately, leads to democratic reversals. Synthesizing prior research on territorial conflict, we generate a quantitative, continuous measure of latent territorial threat against all democracies with contiguous neighbors from 1946 to 2016, using Bayesian estimation. Empirical tests accounting for measurement uncertainty and other common determinants of reversals as well as brief reviews of individual cases of reversal provide robust evidence that democracy failed at higher rates in countries facing high levels of threats to their territory from neighbors. Our study implies that a complete account of the development of democratic institutions should emphasize that domestic factors alone fall short of explaining why democracies fail.

Habitat-dependent intergroup hostility in Diana monkeys, Cercopithecus diana

Territorial threat is costly and variable across contexts and behavioural flexibility is favoured to maximize any cost/benefit ratio. This is well illustrated in how animals react to familiar or unfamiliar outgroup members. In some situations, neighbours are better tolerated than strangers, resulting in a ‘dear-enemy effect’; in other situations, the pattern is reversed, resulting in a ‘nasty-neighbour effect’. Typically, the effects are species-specific traits, although both can also occur within the same species. Here, we investigated wild Diana monkeys of Taï Forest (Ivory Coast) in their reactions to outgroup individuals using playbacks of both familiar and unfamiliar male alarm calls to eagles. We found that groups living in primary forest (high group density, high food availability and low predation pressure) followed a ‘nasty neighbour’ strategy whereas groups living in secondary forest (low group density, low resources and high predation risk) followed a ‘dear enemy’ strategy, suggesting that group density, predation pressure and food availability can impact how hostile behaviour is displayed in nonhuman primates. Our results confirm a high behavioural flexibility in primate relationships between conspecifics of different identities depending on ecological traits of the habitat. • Familiarity with the caller has an impact on Diana monkey male's vocal response. • Diana monkeys can either follow a nasty-neighbour or a dear-enemy strategy. • Hostility between conspecifics of different identities is habitat dependent. • Group density, food availability and predation pressure impact this hostile behaviour. • Primates have a high behavioural flexibility in their relationships with conspecifics.

(Re)constructing borders through the governance of tourism and trade in Ladakh, India

This paper analyses how everyday life, the state and nationhood are regulated and organised in a conflict-affected borderland space through economic activities. It focuses on two elements that are often overlooked when scholars discuss spatial governmentality: tourism and trade. Both are commonly declared to be elements of peace, peacebuilding and cosmopolitism. However, the spatial governance of tourism and trade can also profoundly shape how national belonging and the limits of territory are perceived and experienced by borderland populations and visitors. These dynamics can be acute in conflict-affected border zones, where state sovereignty may be under existential or territorial threat. This paper exposes such dynamics in the Indian conflict borderland area of Ladakh, a part of Jammu and Kashmir State until October 2019. Building on scholarship that has analysed cultural and social dynamics of “bordering” in the region, this paper argues that it is possible to read (socio-)economic boundary-making in Ladakh through the state's influence in the organisation and experience of trade and tourism for Ladakhis and visitors. The paper highlights how their spatial organisation, in part, underwrites difference and separation, and aids in framing the contested territory as ‘Indian’.

Territorial threat and women’s legislative representation

ABSTRACT Why do some countries have fewer women in parliament than do others? Recent studies find that women have less access to positions of political power in countries facing external threats. Existing studies, however, do not differentiate between types of threat. We theorize that territorial threats are a particular driver of gender inequality in national parliaments. When a country’s land is under threat, people prefer having “tough” representatives in the national legislature who are competent on the military and defence more so than when a country faces other threats. Moreover, when countries face territorial threats, they build larger standing armies and adopt military conscription, raising the level of militarization in society, which negatively influences women’s access to the national legislature. Using a time-series cross-sectional data set of 101 democracies, we find that countries facing external territorial threats have lower percentages of women in parliament compared to countries facing other or no external threats. Additionally, we find that countries with higher levels of militarization have fewer women in the national legislature.

Response to underwater laser pointer in the Orange-finned Anemonefish Amphiprion chrysopterus and three-spot damselfish Dascyllus trimaculatus.

Response of orange-finned anemonefish Amphiprion chrysopterus and three-spot damselfish Dascyllus trimaculatus to red laser-pointer light was studied in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Four magnificent anemones Heteractis magnifica and their resident fish were observed for typical behaviours (biting, chasing, hiding, posing, lunging and retreating) with and without exposure to laser-pointer light. Lunging behaviour increased significantly for both fish species upon exposure to laser-pointer light; none of the other behaviours changed significantly. We advance the hypothesis that orange-finned anemonefish and three-spot damselfish interpret laser pointer stimulation as a territorial threat.

How do external territorial threats affect mass killing?

The current scholarship on mass killing demonstrates that genocide and other forms of mass murder are usually policy responses to threats, emphasizing armed conflict and political upheaval, such as revolution, as important causal factors. However, scholars have so far had little to say about the relationship between a country’s external threat environment and mass killing. We argue that a country’s external security environment, particularly when its neighbors pose threats to its territorial integrity, is a critical and understudied factor shaping a leader’s decision to employ mass killing. External territorial threats can produce domestic in-group/out-group dynamics, heightening fears that some domestic groups may be supporting or colluding with the enemy. Yet, given the availability of alternative policies and the enormous costs of mass killing, territorial threats alone do not suffice to explain why a state chooses mass killing over other types of violent or nonviolent strategies. Only when leaders are committed to exclusionary ideologies, are territorial threats more likely to catalyze hatred and fear of domestic out-groups, increasing a leader’s willingness to direct massive violence against them. Such leaders are more likely to frame domestic out-groups as inherently threatening and as enemies to be eliminated. Our empirical analysis reveals that a country’s territorial threat, measured by either territorial rivalries or territorial claims, is associated with a greater likelihood of mass killing onset only when leaders hold exclusionary ideologies.

External Territorial Threats and Tolerance of Corruption: A Private/Government Distinction

AbstractWhat makes individuals tolerate government corruption? Can citizens tolerate government corruption but be intolerant of corrupt behavior in society? I argue not all attitudes toward corruption are the same. External territorial threats elicit a tolerance of government corruption since citizens allow for government corruption when they are concerned for their security. However, citizens become intolerant of corruption in society because they view this as maximizing individual welfare at the expense of the common good (i.e. security). Using data from three unique cross-national surveys, I find that citizens under territorial threat are less likely to think corruption is an important problem, are more likely to tolerate government corruption, but are less likely to tolerate corruption by private citizens.

Fighting talk: complex song elicits more aggressive responses in a vocally complex songbird

Song complexity in many songbirds is a trait subject to sexual selection. It is often associated with male territorial defence. Empirical studies testing differential male responses to rival song in vocally complex songbirds have, however, been scarce. We conducted playback experiments of the endemic New Zealand Tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae to test the aggressive response of territorial male Tui to rival songs with differing complexity levels. Overall, complex songs evoked significantly stronger responses from territorial males than did simple songs. Following playback of complex songs, focal males approached the playback more closely and rapidly, and responded with songs of higher complexity than they did to playback of simple songs. This suggests males could both distinguish between different levels of complexity within the Tui repertoire, and perceive a more complex song as a greater territorial threat. Our study is one of the first to demonstrate strong aggressive responses to increased levels of song complexity in a songbird species with highly complex vocalizations.

Painting too “Rosie” a picture: The impact of external threat on women’s economic welfare

Why is the economic status of women better in one country than another? We maintain that the answer lies in part in the extent of external threat to the homeland territory a country faces. To respond to the threat, states centralize their decision-making, invest more in the military and decrease citizens’ liberties. Associated restrictions and emphases on more “masculine” values create an environment where women’s welfare takes a back seat to the ostensible priority of defending the homeland. Utilizing measures of women’s unemployment from across the world, 1981–2001, we demonstrate that higher levels of territorial threat decrease women’s economic welfare.

Females and males respond more strongly to duets than to female solos: comparing the function of duet and solo singing in a tropical songbird (Icterus icterus)

Abstract Both females and males of many animals possess elaborate displays, such as solo songs and duets of songbirds. We know little about the function of female song or what selects for duets. To examine their possible functions, we played female solos, duets and a heterospecific control to pairs of troupials (Icterus icterus). Both sexes responded strongly to duets by approaching the playback speaker significantly closer, faster, and more often compared to female solos or the control. Neither sex responded strongly to female solos; troupials approached closer, sang sooner, and duetted more following female solos than the control, but this difference was not significant. Our results indicate that troupial duets pose a greater threat than female solos and female troupial solos are not particularly threatening. Troupial duets may be especially threatening because they indicate the presence of a mated pair, which likely poses a greater territorial threat than lone, unmated birds.

Evaluating the Effects of Trade on Militarized Behavior in the Context of Territorial Threat

Does trade reduce conflict even when states compete over high-salience issues (e.g., territory)? Despite recent challenges to liberal peace theory, few studies have examined whether the trade-reduces-conflict argument is robust to particularly conflict prone issues like territory. We evaluate whether trade reduces not only violent conflict over territory, but also the incentives to use specific power politics behaviors (e.g., arms races) associated both with territorial competition and a higher probability of war. As key causal mechanisms, we rely on opportunity costs and the ability to credibly signal information that increased trade generates, reducing states’ incentives to engage in violent conflict and arms races. Empirical analyses, using multiple sample populations and different measures of key indicators and outcomes, are consistent with our expectations. The results suggest that trade may reduce conflict both directly, by decreasing the likelihood of militarized disputes, and indirectly, by reducing the likelihood of power politics strategies like arms races, thought to increase the likelihood of war.

Individual-level expectations of executive authority under territorial threat

What makes individuals likely to support state leaders with few constraints on executive authority? Leaders who reorganize power around their position seem inimical to most individuals’ welfare. Yet in many countries these leaders receive broad popular support when citizens feel some type of threat. This study argues that territorial threat leads individuals to support this type of state leadership. Mobilization of the military for defense of territory requires discretion by the state leader, leading individuals to interpret checks and balances as obstacles to security. The results using mixed effects logit analyses show a robust connection between territorial threat and individual-level expectations of the state leader. Individuals who live in states under territorial threat are more likely to prefer a state leader unconstrained by legislative process or other checks and balances. The analyses provided in this study have important implications for the study of popular support of democracy.

External territorial threat, state capacity, and civil war

We argue that the regional threat environment a state faces plays a consequential role in its political development and the likelihood of experiencing future intrastate wars. Challenges to a state’s territorial integrity lead governments to increase their military personnel, and the resources that support these increases most often come willingly from a public that seeks security. Territorial threats are unlike other types of threats because they challenge individual lives and livelihoods, which both connects the average citizen with the state and allows for easier government extraction of necessary resources. Thus, external territorial threats increase state capacity by unifying the state and by increasing the repressive power of the central government. We identify territorial threats as both latent and realized claims against state territories and find that the presence of an external threat to territory leads to an increase in the capacity of central governments to connect and extract from its citizens, as well as the capacity to repress potential regime dissidents. We also find that the presence of a claim against a state’s territory from a neighbor corresponds with a substantial decrease in the likelihood of intrastate conflict at both high and low levels of intensity. The effect of territorial threat is observed even in the short term after a territorial threat has been resolved. Our tests, using standard models of state capacity and insurgency models of conflict on a sample of all states from 1946 to 2007, are robust to multiple model specifications.

Territorial Peace and Democratic Clustering

A consistent and robust finding in the democratic peace literature is that democracies tend to cluster together. The explanations for clustering rely on several factors, including democratic demonstration effects and aid from democracies to nascent opposition groups in nondemocratic countries. This article questions the logic of the clustering approach, both theoretically and empirically. Further, we develop an argument predicting democratic transitions based on the level of territorial threat targeting the state: high levels of threat cause political centralization and inhibit democratization; low levels of threat allow for decentralization and democratization. This approach explains how democratic transitions are linked to international borders and imply geographic clustering. Analyses of the post-World War II period are supportive of our arguments even when controlling for clustering-based predictors.

Territorial disputes and the politics of individual well-being

Multiple studies argue that the division of territory between states is a root cause of war in the international system. This is often understood as a function of the unique importance of territory at the level of the individual citizen, because the territory itself directly affects an individual’s well-being on multiple dimensions. As such, disputes over territory should also have consequences for an individual’s overall subjective appraisal of their well-being. This article argues that disputes over the allocation of territory between states do affect an individual’s subjective well-being, but not uniformly. Citizens in states routinely targeted by a territorial threat from a revisionist neighbor are generally unhappy. However, citizens in states that initiate territorial disputes are happier as a result of the aggressive foreign policy of the state leader to secure the coveted territorial good. This is first demonstrated using mixed effects modeling on data drawn from the World Values Survey and Correlates of War Militarized Interstate Dispute dataset. In addition, this article provides an illustration of variations in territorial threat and subjective well-being using the case of Nigeria, finding that Nigerians were happier when their state was initiating territorial threat against its neighbors and less happy during a period when Nigeria itself was the target of territorial threat. The analyses provided advance the territorial conflict research program by measuring the individual-level effects of territorial disputes. In addition, the findings add to a growing scholarship on the political determinants of an individual quality of life, sometimes considered the ‘ultimate dependent variable’ in social science.