Can wars breed nationalism? We argue that civilians’ indirect exposure to war fatalities can trigger psychological processes that increase identification with their nation and ultimately strengthen support for nationalist parties. We test this argument in the context of the rise of the Nazi Party after World War 1 (WW1). To measure localized war exposure, we machine-coded information on 7.5 million German soldiers who were wounded or died in WW1. Our empirical strategy leverages battlefield dynamics that cause plausibly exogenous variation in the county-level casualty fatality rate—the share of dead soldiers among all casualties. We find that throughout the interwar period, electoral support for right-wing nationalist parties, including the Nazi Party, was 2.6 percentage points higher in counties with above-median casualty fatality rates. Consistent with our proposed mechanism, we find that this effect was driven by civilians rather than veterans and areas with a preexisting tradition of collective war commemoration.

The hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata is categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and its population has declined by over 80% in the last century. The Eastern Pacific population is one of the most threatened hawksbill populations globally. Western Mexico is the northern distribution limit for hawksbill sea turtles in the Eastern Pacific and recent research indicates that the Mexican Pacific portion of the population is a separate management unit because of the restricted movements of these turtles. Here we use the most complete database of sighting records in the north-west Pacific of Mexico to identify sites where hawksbill turtles are present. We also develop a conservation index to determine the conservation status of hawksbill turtle sites. Our results demonstrate the importance of this region for juveniles and the relevance of rocky reefs and mangrove estuaries as habitats for hawksbill turtles. We identified 52 sites with records of hawksbill turtles. Most of these sites (71%) are not protected; however, sites with high conservation value included islands and coastal sites along the Baja California peninsula that are established as marine protected areas. Reefs and mangrove estuaries relevant for hawksbill turtles are probably also significant fish nursery areas that are important for local fishing communities, creating opportunities for conservation strategies that combine science, local engagement and policy to benefit both local fishing communities and hawksbill sea turtle conservation.

Dictators depend on a committed bureaucracy to implement their policy preferences. But how do they induce loyalty and effort within their civil service? The authors study indoctrination through forced military service as a cost-effective strategy for achieving this goal. Conscription allows the regime to expose recruits, including future civil servants, to intense “political training” in a controlled environment, which should improve system engagement. To test this hypothesis, the authors analyze archival data on over 370,000 cadres from the former German Democratic Republic. Exploiting the introduction of mandatory service in the gdr in 1962 for causal identification, they find a positive effect of conscription on bureaucrats’ system engagement. Additional analyses indicate that this effect likely did not result from deep norm internalization. Findings are more compatible with the idea that political training familiarized recruits with elite preferences, allowing them to behave strategically in accordance with the rules of the game.

What explains states’ sub-national territorial reach? While large parts of the state-building literature have focused on national capabilities, little is known about the determinants of the unevenness of state presence at the sub-national level. This article seeks to fill this gap by looking at early attempts at state building: it investigates the processes of state penetration in the former colony of German East Africa. Contrary to previous studies – which largely emphasized antecedent or structural factors – the current study argues that geographical patterns of state penetration have been driven by the state’s strategic imperative to solidify control over territory and establish political stability. The article tests these propositions using an original, geo-referenced grid-cell dataset for the years 1890 to 1909 based on extensive historical records in German colonial yearbooks and maps.

What follows is a short report on the Business Meeting of the Astronomy and World Heritage Working Group held on Thursday August 6, 2009. This was the first formal Business Meeting of the Working Group since its formation following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the IAU and UNESCO on Astronomy and World Heritage in October 2008.