The first one is not completely wrong, but 'been' struck me as a bit awkward and unnecessary.<br /><br />'Why are territ. disputes escalated?' really should be why <strong>do</strong> territ disputes escalate?<br /><br />'Why do territorial dispute[S] escalate recurrently?' is also acceptable, although in thinking about it further, all of the above except your original version, actually, suggest that the disputes escalate themselves, rather than the actual case, which is that someone escalates them. I now think it might actually be best to say, Why has the xyz government escalated the S-D dispute recurrently?<br /><br />I hope that's helpful, and thank you for asking about it.<br /><br />Best Regards,<br /><br />Nyanidoc