Border Crossing between the Russian Far East and Manchuria

This article addresses population movements across the Amur and the Ussuri River borders between Russia and China. It analyses the history of border crossing in this region from Russia’s acquisition of the Amur and Maritime provinces from the Qing Empire in 1860 to the present time, with a focus on the 1920s and 1930s. The article’s first part demonstrates that the movement of people (settlers, work migrants, refugees) across the two river borders went in both directions. The second part asks when the formerly porous river borders became sealed through strengthened military control. By analysing the mechanics of border crossing, such as the clandestine passages of Mennonites, a Russian–German Protestant sect, from Soviet territory into Chinese Manchuria over the Amur in 1929 and 1930, as well as the escape stories of other refugees from the Soviet Union, the article shows in its third part that the ‘sealed’ borders could nonetheless be transgressed.

Density Decline in a Mediterranean Seahorse Population: Natural Fluctuations or New Emerging Threats?

Illegal wildlife trade is considered one of the most serious threats to biodiversity worldwide, along with habitat loss/degradation and overfishing of wild stocks. Seahorses are considered at high risk as these fish represent an important component of traditional Chinese medicine but are also sold as curios and ornamental fish. On a worldwide level, illegal trade is controlled by numerous laws and regulations, but it seems to continue by assuming more dynamic routes. In the Mediterranean Sea, Hippocampus guttulatus formed one of the largest populations at Mar Piccolo di Taranto in South-Eastern Italy. During the routine monitoring of this population in 2016, a dramatic density decrease was observed. By using questionnaires and long-term datasets, the present study determined possible causes of this decline by investigating habitat changes, temperature trends and the existence of seahorse trafficking while also examining abundance trends during the last decade. The results indicated a sharp density decline starting from 2015, co-occurring with the period of high temperatures, while habitats remained almost constant. However, interviews with main stakeholders described both illegal and legal fishing activities as the main drivers for the declining seahorse density. Indeed, at one of the studied sites, which was under strict military control, seahorse abundance started to decline only after the intensification of fishing pressure in the basin. The study suggests that Mar Piccolo di Taranto could be one of the sources for international seahorse trade, thus highlighting the need for more intense and effective actions to prevent and combat illegal poaching, while threatened populations are requiring continuous and close monitoring. Due to unfavorable socio-economic conditions, a viable and thriving seahorse population at Mar Piccolo di Taranto could contribute to the revitalization of the coastal economy and the development of environmental awareness.

Britain's Levantine Empire, 1914-1923

Britain’s Levantine Empire, 1914-1923 explains the rise and decline and nature and extent of British military rule in the urban eastern Mediterranean during the course of the First World War and its aftermath. Combining novel case studies and theoretical approaches, the book reveals the extent of military control that Britain established and anticipated maintaining in the post-Ottoman world, before a series of confrontations with nationalist and socialist anti-imperialists forced a new division of the eastern Mediterranean, still visible in the political borders of the present day. It tells this story through the eyes and ears of the British servicemen who built this empire, analysing the testimony of over 100 such military personal sent to Alexandria, Thessaloniki, Istanbul and the towns and islands between them, as they voyaged, made camp, and explored and patrolled the city streets. Whereas histories examining soldiers’ experiences in the First World War have almost exclusively focused on their lives at the frontlines, this book provides a much needed in depth history of soldiers’ experience and impact on the urban hubs of the Eastern Mediterranean, where urban planning, nightlife and entertainment, policing and security were transformed by the presence of so many men at arms and the imperialist interventions that accompanied them.

Winning Hearts and Minds for Rebel Rulers: Foreign Aid and Military Contestation in Syria

A primary objective of foreign aid in conflict zones is to help political actors win citizens’ ‘hearts and minds’. Previous studies have focused on assistance provided to state actors; however, this article examines aid's impact on rebel governance. It argues that aid only bolsters opinions of rebel governors where military control is uncontested. In contested areas, rebels lose credibility if they cannot offer protection, and they have difficulty delivering – and receiving credit for – services in insecure environments crowded with competitors. Using novel data from the Syrian civil war, this article shows that aid improves opinions of opposition councils in uncontested areas but not in communities experiencing intra-rebel conflict. It also explores the underlying mechanisms using in-depth interviews with residents of Aleppo City and Saraqeb. The findings reveal a more nuanced relationship among aid, military competition and governance than prior studies have suggested, which has implications for both scholars and policy makers.

Congo’s 'state of siege' will struggle to deliver

Significance The attacks came a month after President Felix Tshisekedi imposed a ‘state of siege’ on the two provinces, placing them under military control to rein in violence. Impacts Military rule may increase violations of human rights, including freedom of expression; this could trigger protests. The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near Goma will distract attention from security operations and complicate logistics. Efforts to enlist regional military support could add a powerful new dynamic into operations, but could also aggravate popular tensions.

Congo’s siege tactics may fail to bring stability

Two of the country’s conflict-affected eastern provinces have been placed under military control

The Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire remains one of the least known of all ancient empires. Yet between ca. 50 and ca. 250 CE the Kushans dominated the political, cultural, and economic landscape of a vast region of Inner Eurasia, including extensive parts of Central, East, and South Asia. Along with their direct political and military control of this enormous realm, the veritable “crossroads of Eurasia,” the Kushans also exerted significant influence upon much of ancient Eurasia by playing a crucial role in facilitating the extraordinary levels of cross-cultural exchange that characterize the first Silk Roads Era. For two centuries the Kushans were one of the key powers of their era during a period in which much of Afro-Eurasia was controlled by just four imperial states. So crucial were they to this dynamic and interconnected period in world history that the First Silk Roads Era could justifiably be renamed the “Kushan Era.”

Green Guerrillas and Counterinsurgent Environmentalists in the Petén, Guatemala

At the peak of Guatemala?s 36-year civil war (1960?1996), fought between a right- wing authoritarian regime and leftist guerrillas, the army massacred tens of thousands of Maya peasants in a genocidal counterinsurgency. The scorched earth campaign halted the insurgency?s momentum, but the army was unable to secure political or military control in the large area of northern lowlands called El Pete?n. This essay examines how, at this critical juncture, the insurgents and the army embraced distinct environmentalist platforms and land-use policies in order to gain a strategic advantage. It argues that the army won a discursive battle, with assistance from big international conservation NGOs, to claim itself as the only legitimate ?defender of the forests?. This enabled the military to consolidate its position against the insurgents in the northern lowlands, contributing to its de facto victory in the war, as well as fuelling ongoing violence in the postwar.

Hierarchical Inclusion: The Untold History of Israel's Affirmative Action for Arab Citizens (1948–68)

The history of Israel's relationship with its Palestinian-Arab minority during the founding decades, from 1948 to 1968, is often portrayed as a story of formal citizenship that concealed large-scale, state-sanctioned oppression under military rule. This article excavates an untold history of employment affirmative action for Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel during these two decades which does not fit neatly into this story. Drawing on original archival research, it reveals that, during Israel's founding decades, officials adopted hiring quotas for unskilled Arab workers and for educated Arabs; requirements and incentives for hiring Arabs in government offices, Jewish businesses, and organizations; earmarked jobs and established vocational training courses for the Arab population. It demonstrates that interests in safeguarding Jewish control and economic stability aligned with egalitarian aspirations, and motivated state officials to adopt measures that promoted the inclusion of the Arab population in the workforce, albeit on unequal terms. Furthermore, these measures were part of a transformation of the state's attitude towards Arab citizens, from strict military control to a regime of “hierarchical inclusion” entailing gradual integration into the Israeli economy — mostly though its lower tiers and with a second-class status. Tracing the use of these mechanisms, not then called affirmative action but recognizable as such today, to this period of subjected population management, complicates our understanding of both this chapter in Israel's history and of affirmative action more broadly.