How do individuals’ personal experiences with various aspects of political violence affect their attitudes toward hosting conflict refugees? More specifically, how do their personal exposure to ...violence, their own personal experience of being displaced, and their recent contact with refugees influence these attitudes? To explore answers to these questions, we draw upon a recent survey of 2,400 Lebanese residents where we identify individuals who experienced violence during the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), those forced to flee their homes during that conflict, and those who enjoy recent contact with Syrian immigrant and/or displaced populations. We examine whether these distinct experiences affect respondents’ regard for members of the Syrian refugee population. Results demonstrate that historical exposure to violence and experience of displacement have no discernible impact on individual attitudes toward hosting refugees. We find much stronger evidence that attitudes are associated with whether individual respondents have had contact with Syrians in Lebanon; those with such interactions are significantly more likely to support hosting refugees, to consider hiring a refugee, or to allow one of their children to marry a refugee. Our findings suggest exposure to violence by itself does not correlate to positive sentiments toward refugees, especially over time. Further, finding ways to create positive contact between refugees and native populations may be associated with improving attitudes and relations between the two populations.
Terrorist attacks in Brussels (May 2014) and Paris (January and November 2015) highlight the threat related to the arrival of foreign fighters (FFs) from civil wars elsewhere. We develop an argument ...suggesting that terrorism at home is systematically affected by the exit of the so-called FFs out of civil wars abroad. We contend that foreign civil conflicts ending in success for rebel groups can result in a surplus of well-trained FFs, increasing the risk of terrorism at home. By contrast, when rebel groups are defeated in foreign civil conflicts, we anticipate a restriction in the flow of FFs, which reduces the likelihood of terrorism at home. Empirical analyses on most countries for the years 1970 to 2006 support these hypotheses. Our tests also demonstrate that the flow of FFs is associated with the creation of new terrorism campaigns rather than the exacerbation of existing operations.
While the UNHCR promotes voluntary repatriation as the preferred solution to refugee situations, there is little understanding of variation in refugees’ preferences regarding return. We develop a ...theoretical framework suggesting two mechanisms influencing refugees’ preferences. First, refugees’ lived experiences in their country of origin prior to displacement and in their new host country create a trade-off in feelings of being anchored to their origin or host country. Second, firsthand exposure to traumas of war provides some refugees with a sense of competency and self-efficacy, leading them to prefer to return home. We test these relationships with data from a survey among Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon. We find refugees exposed to violence during the war have a sense of attachment to Syria and are most likely to prefer return. Refugees who have developed a detachment from Syria or an attachment to Lebanon are less likely to prefer return.
This article argues that dynamics among rivals can affect how host states respond to refugees. Particularly, refugees from rival states can motivate host countries to promote inclusive action because ...they are exiled from an adversary. By treating refugees well and openly respecting their human rights, host states can, in effect, shame their rival, thereby undermining the adversary's legitimacy and discrediting the opposing government in the eyes of the international community. In the absence of a strategic rivalry, host governments do not have this incentive to support refugee human rights. Using statistical analyses, I find support for these hypotheses. In particular, the arrival of refugees from a neighboring rival state are associated with the strongest increase in respect for human rights within the host country, whereas refugees from a noncontiguous, nonrival state are related to a decrease in respect for human rights.
How do individuals’ experiences with political violence affect their perceptions regarding the risk associated with hosting refugees? This is an important question given that many communities are ...beginning to resent and oppose hosting refugees. To explore answers to the question, we study recent exposure to violence within Lebanon, which is a meaningful context since Lebanon serves as host to more than one million refugees from the Syrian Civil War. We adopt a novel empirical strategy to isolate the effect of exposure to violence upon perceptions of risk associated with hosting refugees. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the timing of violent events linked to refugee populations in Lebanon relative to the timing of responses to our nationally representative survey deployed between June and August 2017. Our empirical strategy compares individuals interviewed before and after violent attacks in Lebanon. The results suggest that recent exposure to violence by Syrian militants increases individuals’ perceptions of risk associated with hosting refugees from conflict zones, while exposure to violence carried out by Lebanese forces reduces perceptions of risk.
There has been a great deal of discussion about the large volumes of foreign fighters involved in civil conflicts in Syria and Iraq over recent years. Yet, there remains little systematic evidence ...about the effect, if any, that foreign fighters have upon the conflicts they join. Existing literature distinguishes between the resources fighters bring to rebel groups and the liability they represent in regards to campaign cohesion. We seek to establish preliminary evidence as to whether or not foreign fighters contribute to the success of the campaigns they join. Our multinomial logistic and competing risks regression analyses of civil conflicts between 1946 and 2013 suggest that foreign fighters are associated with a decreased likelihood of government victory. Furthermore, we offer partial evidence to suggest that foreign fighters from non-contiguous countries are more likely to help rebels achieve a negotiated settlement or to continue their struggle against the government, but not to directly help them achieve victory.
Combatants used sexual violence in approximately half of all civil conflicts since 1989. We expect that when groups resort to sexual violence they are organizationally vulnerable, unlikely to win, ...and as such they are inclined to salvage something from the conflict by way of a settlement. Using quantitative analysis of data on civil conflicts in the post-Cold War period, we find that a higher prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated by government forces precipitates negotiated outcomes. This is particularly true in contexts where both government and rebel forces utilize comparable levels of wartime rape and other forms of sexual abuse.
There has been a great deal of discussion about the large volumes of foreign fighters involved in civil conflicts in Syria and Iraq over recent years. Yet, there remains little systematic evidence ...about the effect, if any, that foreign fighters have upon the conflicts they join. Existing literature distinguishes between the resources fighters bring to rebel groups and the liability they represent in regards to campaign cohesion. We seek to establish preliminary evidence as to whether or not foreign fighters contribute to the success of the campaigns they join. Our multinomial logistic and competing risks regression analyses of civil conflicts between 1946 and 2013 suggest that foreign fighters are associated with a decreased likelihood of government victory. Furthermore, we offer partial evidence to suggest that foreign fighters from non-contiguous countries are more likely to help rebels achieve a negotiated settlement or to continue their struggle against the government, but not to directly help them achieve victory.
We elucidated the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of IL-38 in allergic asthma. Human bronchial epithelial cells and eosinophils were cocultured upon stimulation with the viral RLR ligand poly ...(I:C)/LyoVec or infection-related cytokine TNF-α to induce expression of cytokines/chemokines/adhesion molecules. House dust mite (HDM)-induced allergic asthma and humanized allergic asthma NOD/SCID murine models were established to assess anti-inflammatory mechanisms in vivo. IL-38 significantly inhibited induced proinflammatory IL-6, IL-1β, CCL5, and CXCL10 production, and antiviral interferon-β and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression in the coculture system. Mass cytometry and RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that IL-38 could antagonize the activation of the intracellular STAT1, STAT3, p38 MAPK, ERK1/2, and NF-κB pathways, and upregulate the expression of the host defense-related gene POU2AF1 and anti-allergic response gene RGS13. Intraperitoneal injection of IL-38 into HDM-induced allergic asthma mice could ameliorate airway hyperreactivity by decreasing the accumulation of eosinophils in the lungs and inhibiting the expression of the Th2-related cytokines IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung homogenates. Histological examination indicated lung inflammation was alleviated by reductions in cell infiltration and goblet cell hyperplasia, together with reduced Th2, Th17, and innate lymphoid type 2 cell numbers but increased proportions of regulatory T cells in the lungs, spleen, and lymph nodes. IL-38 administration suppressed airway hyperreactivity and asthma-related IL-4 and IL-5 expression in humanized mice, together with significantly decreased CCR3
eosinophil numbers in the BALF and lungs, and a reduced percentage of human CD4
CRTH2
Th2 cells in the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes. Together, our results demonstrated the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of IL-38 and provided a basis for the development of a regulatory cytokine-based treatment for allergic asthma.
The in vivo mechanisms underlying dominant syndromes caused by mutations in SRY-Box Transcription Factor 9 (
) and
(
) transcription factors, when they either are expressed alone or are coexpressed, ...are ill-defined. We created a mouse model for the campomelic dysplasia
mutation, which truncates the transactivation domain but leaves DNA binding and dimerization intact. Here, we find that
causes deafness via distinct mechanisms in the endolymphatic sac (ES)/duct and cochlea. By contrast, conditional heterozygous
-null mice are normal. During the ES development of
heterozygotes,
and genes important for ionic homeostasis are down-regulated, and there is developmental persistence of progenitors, resulting in fewer mature cells.
heterozygous null mutants also display persistence of ES/duct progenitors. By contrast, SOX10 retains its expression in the early
mutant cochlea. Later, in the postnatal stria vascularis, dominant interference by SOX9
is implicated in impairing the normal cooperation of SOX9 and SOX10 in repressing the expression of the water channel Aquaporin 3, thereby contributing to endolymphatic hydrops. Our study shows that for a functioning endolymphatic system in the inner ear, SOX9 regulates
, and depending on the cell type and target gene, it works either independently of or cooperatively with SOX10. SOX9
can interfere with the activity of both SOXE factors, exerting effects that can be classified as haploinsufficient/hypomorphic or dominant negative depending on the cell/gene context. This model of disruption of transcription factor partnerships may be applicable to congenital deafness, which affects ∼0.3% of newborns, and other syndromic disorders.
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