Territorial Threats Research Articles

Beyond color and pattern: elucidating the factors associated with intraspecific aggression in the mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator)

Assortative or disassortative aggression – when individuals display more aggression towards conspecifics with similar or different phenotypic characteristics – can either maintain polymorphisms or facilitate gene flow between populations depending on which direction the aggression is aimed. Deciphering which factors elicit or prevent aggression is crucial to improving our knowledge of the origin and maintenance of reproductive barriers and subsequent speciation. The Peruvian mimic poison frog, Ranitomeya imitator, is a monogamous and territorial species that has evolved into four distinct color-pattern morphs in a mimetic radiation. Here we use historical landscape genetic data and competition trials between male individuals sourced from different populations and color-pattern morphs to show that the level of aggression between individuals is not associated with color morph or body size but rather with source population. Individuals spent more time in combat with individuals from their own deme (genetically homogeneous population), irrespective of color morph or size. These findings indicate that genotypic similarity is correlated with increased aggression in R. imitator, though the mechanism by which R. imitator males identify conspecifics as territorial threats remains unclear. As body size and color morph were not significantly associated with aggression levels, this study emphasizes the necessity of further research to identify whether other phenotypic traits are influencing territorial behavior between male frogs, and if these factors play a role in increasing gene flow, or conversely, the formation of reproductive barriers between populations.

Формування навичок емоційної стійкості учасників освітнього процесу в умовах надзвичайних ситуацій

The article emphasizes that organizing the educational process during a state of war fosters collective hope for social change and improvements in life. It also alleviates people's fears of the future and the unknown, aiding educators and students in utilizing education as a tool for building a peaceful and just world in the future. The authors analyzed available informational resources in Ukraine and abroad concerning the development of emotional resilience skills among participants in the educational process amid emergencies. It's highlighted that despite a significant increase in natural disasters, technological catastrophes, social and military conflicts worldwide, issues related to organizing education in emergencies haven't become a priority in scientific research. In the context of ongoing and integrated manifestations of extraordinary situations—be it natural (COVID-19 pandemic), technological (power outages, lack of communication, accidents in heating stations, fires), social (cyberattacks, population evacuations, false alerts in institutions), or military (rocket attacks, drone strikes, territorial threats, etc.)—the Ukrainian education system strives to continue functioning. This demands considerable physical and, more importantly, psychological efforts from educational participants, given that they all work under constant stress. However, the problems related to organizing education in emergencies of a military nature have yet to find proper reflection in Ukrainian pedagogical science. One of the significant psychological factors for effective performance in emergency situations is emotional resilience, which reduces the negative impact of strong emotions, maintains readiness for action, and prevents severe stress. Therefore, the authors conclude that further scientific research on the emotional resilience of educational participants in situations of war, characterized by frequent occurrences of various emergencies, is crucial for Ukraine. Developing methodologies for fostering and enhancing emotional resilience skills is essential.

Leaning on Legionnaires: Why Modern States Recruit Foreign Soldiers

Abstract Why do modern states recruit legionnaires—foreigners who are neither citizens nor subjects of the country whose military they serve? Rather than exclusively enlist citizens for soldiers, for the past two centuries states have mobilized legionnaires to help wage offensives, project power abroad, and suppress dissent. A supply-and-demand argument explains why states recruit these troops, framing the choice to mobilize legionnaires as a function of political factors that constrain the government's leeway to recruit domestically and its perceptions about the territorial threats it faces externally. A multimethod approach evaluates these claims, first by examining an original dataset of legionnaire recruitment from 1815 to 2020, then by employing congruence tests across World War II participants, and finally by conducting a detailed review of a hard test case for the argument—Nazi Germany. The prevalence of states’ recruitment of legionnaires calls for a reevaluation of existing narratives about the development of modern militaries and provides new insights into how states balance among the competing imperatives of identity, norms, and security. Legionnaire recruitment also underscores the need to recalibrate existing methods of calculating net assessments and preparing for strategic surprise. Far from being bound to a state's citizenry or borders, the theory and evidence show how governments use legionnaires to buttress their military power and to engineer rapid changes in the quality and quantity of the soldiers that they field.

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A desert songbird with no confamilials in the Western Hemisphere (Verdin,Auriparus flaviceps) investigates divergent conspecific songs

AbstractMost birds that show geographic variation in their songs discriminate between local and foreign songs, which may help them avoid unnecessary conflicts with vagrant individuals or similar-sounding congeners. However, some species respond equally to foreign and local songs, which may be useful if foreign individuals present territorial threats or if there are no sympatric congeners to avoid. Species without sympatric congeners are not commonly tested in playback studies, but they offer an opportunity to see how song variation and recognition unfolds when the pressure to avoid similar congeners is absent. Here, we use Verdins (Auriparus flaviceps), a monotypic genus of songbird with no confamilials in North America, to explore song variation and recognition in a species living without close relatives. We assessed geographic variation in song across the Verdin range and conducted a playback experiment using exemplars from 2 acoustically divergent and geographically distant regions as treatments. We found significant geographic variation in song that mapped well onto ecologically distinct desert regions. We found that Verdins had stronger vocal responses to local-sounding songs, but had equal movement responses to local-sounding and foreign songs. These results are similar to results found in other species without sympatric congeners and provide an example of a species that investigates acoustically divergent conspecific songs, despite recognizing salient differences in those songs.

Fish-inspired flexible protective material systems with anisotropic bending stiffness

Biological structures integrate morphometry (shape-based rules) with materials design to maximize organism survival. The exoskeleton of the armored fish, Polypterus senegalus, balances flexibility with protection from predatory and territorial threats. Material properties of the exoskeleton are known; however, the geometric design rules underlying its anisotropic flexibility are uncharacterized. Here, we show how scale shape, articulation, and composite architecture produce anisotropic mechanics using bio-inspired, multi-material 3D-printed prototypes. Passive loading (draping) shows that compliant connections between the scales contribute to mechanical anisotropy. Simulated and experimental active loading (bending) show orientation-dependent stiffness ranging over orders of magnitude, including ‘mechanical invisibility’ of the scales where they do not add stiffness to the exoskeleton. The results illustrate how morphometry provides a powerful tool to tune flexibility in composite architectures independent of varying constituent materials composition. We anticipate that introducing morphometric design strategies will enable flexible, protective systems tuned to complex shapes and functions.

A comprehensive analytical process, from NPS threat identification to systematic screening: Method validation and one-year prevalence study

Several New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) enter the illicit drug market each year. This constant evolution of compounds to screen is challenging to law enforcement and drug chemists, and even more so to forensic toxicologists, who need to detect such compounds which might be at low concentrations in complex biological matrices. While some technological solutions are better suited than others to address such a challenge (e.g., high resolution mass spectrometry), laboratories with limited instrumental and financial resources are faced with a complex task: systematically screening for a rapidly evolving NPS panel using an accredited method run on standard equipment (e.g., liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS)). This work presents a solution to this challenge: a complete workflow from the detection of a regional NPS threat to its implementation in a method accredited under the ISO 17025:2017 norm. Initial LC–MS/MS method included 55 NPS and metabolites (31 Novel Synthetic Opioids (NSO), 22 NSO metabolites and 2 designer benzodiazepines). Following their identification as relevant territorial threats, flualprazolam, then isotonitazene, were added to the contingent. By relying on development aiming for maximal integration to the current analysis workflow, systematic NPS screening using this method was easily implemented. Between March 2019 and March 2020, the 5 079 forensic cases analyzed in the province of Québec (Canada) revealed a NPS positivity rate of 3.4%. While 94% involved designer benzodiazepines, 5% involved NSO. This process, combining high efficiency, simple detection technology, ISO accreditation and rapid response to new threats resulted in a four-fold increase in NPS detection.

La gestión comunitaria del riesgo. Justicia espacial y ambiental

El artículo presenta una experiencia de gestión comunitaria del riesgo como parte de la construcción social barrial, sorteando el conflicto generado por la aplicación de lineamientos normativos para el ordenamiento territorial de Medellín (Colombia) y las condiciones geomorfológicas adversas de un contexto de ladera. Para esto, se aplicó una metodología de investigación-acción, estructurada desde escenarios participativos de educación popular con una comunidad barrial: El Pacífico, ubicado en la parte alta de la Comuna 8, ladera nororiental de Medellín. A partir de esta propuesta, se formuló un plan de gestión comunitaria del riesgo y prevención de desastres, contemplando la identificación de amenazas de orden socioterritorial, medidas de reducción de riesgo y un componente programático. Tomando estos resultados como referencia, se discuten las implicaciones de la gestión comunitaria de riesgos y su capacidad para reducir la brecha de las inequidades socioespaciales. Se concluye que la gestión comunitaria de riesgo de desastres, conjugada con la educación popular y la interacción entre academia, comunidad, organizaciones sociales e instituciones gubernamentales, puede fungir como práctica clave para la materialización de la justicia espacial y ambiental de la ciudad de Medellín.

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.

Territorial disputes and individual willingness to fight

Extant scholarship establishes that territorial issues are more likely than other types of issues to lead to militarized interstate disputes and war. One key premise is that a strong attachment to the material and symbolic values of the homeland makes people more willing to fight for their country in territorial disputes. However, there is no systematic evidence for this premise. Although recent studies investigate the effect of territorial conflict on individual attitudes and find that territorial issues are qualitatively different from other types of issues, researchers have not yet investigated how territorial threats influence people’s willingness to fight. By combining data on territorial claims from the Issue Correlates of War project with individual-level data from the World Values Survey, this article tests the relationship between territorial claims and individuals’ willingness to fight. My analysis reveals that respondents are more willing to fight for their country when their countries experience territorial claims. Building on the contentious issues approach, I further demonstrate the importance of issue salience and issue context in the relationship between territorial claims and willingness to fight. Last, I show that the relationship between territorial claims and willingness to fight depends on a country’s level of economic development or regime type.

Anthropogenic noise affects male house wren response to but not detection of territorial intruders.

Anthropogenic noise decreases signal active space, or the area over which male bird song can be detected in the environment. For territorial males, noise may make it more difficult to detect and assess territorial challenges, which in turn may increase defense costs and influence whether males maintain territory ownership. We tested the hypothesis that noise affects the ability of male house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) near active nests to detect intruders and alters responses to them. We broadcast pre-recorded male song and pink noise on territories to simulate intrusions with and without noise, as well as to noise alone. We measured detection by how long males took to sing or approach the speaker after the start of a playback. To measure whether playbacks changed male behavior, we compared their vocal responses before and during treatments, as well as compared mean vocal responses and the number of flyovers and attacks on the speaker during treatments. Noise did not affect a male’s ability to detect an intruder on his territory. Males altered their responses to simulated intruders with and without noise compared to the noise-only treatment by singing longer songs at faster rates. Males increased peak frequency of songs during intrusions without noise compared to noise-only treatments, but frequency during intruder plus noise treatments did not differ from either. When confronting simulated intruders in noise, males increased the number of attacks on the speaker compared to intruders without noise, possibly because they were less able to assess intruders via songs and relied on close encounters for information. Although noise did not affect intruder detection, noise affected some aspects of singing and aggressive responses, which may be related to the challenge of discriminating and assessing territorial threats under elevated noise.

Demographic Engineering and Population Alteration in Iranian Kurdistan

Studying the Iranian Kurdish question reveals the importance of the geopolitical location of the Kurdish region, which has left a massive impact on the framework and capability of the contemporary Kurdish national movement. Aware of this fact, different ruling regimes of Iran, considering territorial threats associated with the Kurdish nationalistic movement, implemented different policies of systematic “demographic engineering,” aimed at reducing the capability of the Kurdish claim for autonomy. Some aspects of the policy of demographic engineering implemented during the Safavid and the Pahlavi dynasties have been examined. Based on this, the article argues that the geopolitical location of the Kurdish region, as a buffer zone between the Ottoman and Safavid dynasties, has diminished and continues to undermine the capability of the Kurdish struggle for autonomy in Iran.

The Rise of the Islamic State and Changing Patterns of Cooperation in the Middle East

ABSTRACT Interstate relations are highly interdependent: a change in relations between a pair of states can impact the relationship each of those states has with third parties, as well as relations among those third party states. This is particularly salient in cases where emerging security threats have the potential to destabilize existing patterns of interstate behavior. While the interdependent nature of states’ strategic responses to varied security challenges is often discussed and theorized in the international relations (IR) literature, it is less frequently modeled empirically. We present an approach for analyzing state relations that takes into account higher-order dependencies in the position of states within a network. We apply the approach to a unique context: diplomatic relations between Middle East and North African (MENA) states during a period in which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) becomes a significant destabilizing force in the region. We find that the emergence of ISIL dramatically reshaped the region’s politics, improving relations among the region’s major powers while worsening relations for the states facing territorial threats from the group.

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 Military Regimes

This study argues that sustained threats to homeland territory create an environment conducive to the presence of military regimes. Territorial threats lead to increased levels of militarization and make the military internally unified and cohesive. These developments enhance the military’s capacity for intervening in politics where a strong and autonomous military serves as an institutionalized veto player. Accordingly, collegial military regimes, characterized by a group of high-ranking officers and distinct from military strongman rule in which power is concentrated in the hands of a single military leader, are likely to exist in environments rife with territorial threats. Supporting my argument, I find that a country is more likely to experience collegial military rule when it engages in rivalries or claims over territorial issues.

THE “RALLY ’ROUND THE FLAG” EFFECT IN TERRITORIAL DISPUTES: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM JAPAN–CHINA RELATIONS

AbstractThis study examines the impact of China's growing territorial ambitions on Japanese public opinion. By experimentally manipulating perceived territorial threats from China, we tested two potential mechanisms of increased support for a conservative incumbent leader in Japan. The first is the “rally ’round the flag” model, in which threats universally boost support for the leader through emotion. The second is the “reactive liberal” model, in which support from conservatives remains constant, but threatened liberals move toward supporting the conservative leader. Two survey experiments provided no support for the emotion-based “rally ’round the flag” model, but they lent support for the reactive liberal model in explaining the impact on Japanese public opinion. However, the second experiment indicated that priming with an image of the prime minister that highlights his role as the supreme commander of the national defense forces completely eliminated the gain in approval rates among liberals.

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.

Nuclear opportunism: A theory of how states use nuclear weapons in international politics

ABSTRACTHow do states use nuclear weapons to achieve their goals in international politics? Nuclear weapons can influence state decisions about a range of strategic choices relating to military aggression, the scope of foreign policy objectives, and relations with allies. The article offers a theory to explain why emerging nuclear powers use nuclear weapons to facilitate different foreign policies: becoming more or less aggressive; providing additional support to allies or proxies, seeking independence from allies; or expanding the state’s goals in international politics. I argue that a state’s choices depend on the presence of severe territorial threats or an ongoing war, the presence of allies that provide for the state’s security, and whether the state is increasing in relative power. The conclusion discusses implications of the argument for our understanding of nuclear weapons and the history of proliferation, and nonproliferation policy today.

A Values-Led Planning Approach for Sustainable Land Use and Development

Abstract The creation of positive synergy in managing land-related resources if exploring the territorial capabilities, threats and opportunities, e.g. the effects of urban expansion, multi-functionality of land use, internalisation of negative externalities and challenges of a city agglomeration, causes primary necessity for the modern society. The study is concerned with the conceptual background and feasibility aspects of values-led planning (VLP) approach to be introduced into land management practice by capitalising first of all on comparative analysis of dynamic spatial planning systems and planning cultures. Finally, it is argued that the implementation of new planning approach within proposed framework would lead towards improved land use policies and better territorial governance, developing more inclusive and resilient territories for the benefit of a society.

The role of gamma interbrain synchrony in social coordination when humans face territorial threats.

Throughout history and into the modern era, human groups have been continually subjected to a wide range of societal threats, from natural disasters to pandemics to terrorism. Yet despite this fundamental aspect of human existence, there has been little research on how societal threat affects social coordination at both the neural and the behavioral level. Here, we show for the first time that individuals are better able to coordinate under high societal threat as compared to low or no threat (Experiment 1). Using a method of hyperscanning electroencephalography (EEG), which simultaneously measures brain activity among interacting subjects, we further illustrate that interbrain synchrony of gamma band oscillations is enhanced when people are under high threat, and increased gamma interbrain synchrony is associated with lower dyadic interpersonal time lag (i.e. higher coordination) (Experiment 2). To our knowledge, the current work provides some of the first empirical evidence that gamma interbrain synchrony is associated with social coordination when humans are under threat.