Unheard voices: state-making and popular participation in post-Ottoman Iraq

I explore the nature of the particular nation state form that came into being in Iraq during the British Mandate, and in particular its impact on minorities. The Mandate government, and the broader international legal framework, structured state–minority relations in post-Ottoman Iraq in ways that continue to shape Iraqi politics. While sociocultural differences in Iraqi society were given constitutional recognition, this did not lead to the effective protection of minority rights, primarily because the principle of popular participation was not respected. The Mandate legacy in Iraq has been long-lasting, as the mistakes of the past have been reproduced by postcolonial regimes, and thus the state–minority relationship has been locked in a loop of exclusionary politics and securitization.     

Population structure,biomass, and diet of landlocked Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) in a small,shallow High Arctic lake

Polar Biology - Although landlocked Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, occur in a large number of High Arctic lakes and often as the only fish species, knowledge of densities and resource use is...     

Y chromosome haplotype distribution of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Northern Europe provides insight into population history and recovery

High‐resolution, male‐inherited Y‐chromosomal markers are a useful tool for population genetic analyses of wildlife species, but to date have only been applied in this context to relatively few species besides humans. Using nine Y‐chromosomal STRs and three Y‐chromosomal single nucleotide polymorphism markers (Y‐SNPs), we studied whether male gene flow was important for the recent recovery of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Northern Europe, where the species declined dramatically in numbers and geographical distribution during the last centuries but is expanding now. We found 36 haplotypes in 443 male extant brown bears from Sweden, Norway, Finland and northwestern Russia. In 14 individuals from southern Norway from 1780 to 1920, we found two Y chromosome haplotypes present in the extant population as well as four Y chromosome haplotypes not present among the modern samples. Our results suggested major differences in genetic connectivity, diversity and structure between the eastern and the western populations in Northern Europe. In the west, our results indicated that the recovered population originated from only four male lineages, displaying pronounced spatial structuring suggestive of large‐scale population size increase under limited male gene flow within the western subpopulation. In the east, we found a contrasting pattern, with high haplotype diversity and admixture. This first population genetic analysis of male brown bears shows conclusively that male gene flow was not the main force of population recovery.