Books / James Borton

James Borton

James Borton, a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at Yale University, is a non-resident senior fellow at Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and a global journalist who has been reporting on Southeast Asia and the South China Sea for three decades. He writes for Asia Times, Asia Global Online, East Asia Forum, Foreign Policy, Geopolitical Monitor, South China Morning Post, The Washington Times and UPI. His most recent book is Harvesting the Waves: How Blue Parks Shape Policy, Politics, and Peacebuilding in the South China Sea. He also founded the news aggregator, South China Sea NewsWire. www.southchinaseanewswire.com

Harvesting the Waves: How Blue Parks Shape Policy, Politics and Peacebuilding in the South China Sea

James Borton highlights that networked marine protected areas are effective conservation tools for marine ecosystems. He reconfirms that these interconnected MPAs support ecosystem services, increase biodiversity, improve fisheries management, and enhance climate adaptation. Borton adds to the literature on networked MPAs by successfully arguing their potential geopolitical benefits in reducing tensions in the contested South China Sea and showing how the ecological and geopolitical outcomes are...

Dispatches from the South China Sea: Navigating to Common Ground

This must-read and eminently readable study takes readers on a voyage through the seemingly intractable problems in the South China Sea to reveal how through environmental collaboration competing nations can adopt trust and science-driven peace building measures that can help reduce the risks of conflict. --Carla Freeman, Senior Expert China, United States Institute of Peace The elegantly written memoir chronicles the gradual erosion of the marine biodiversity of the South China Sea, a victim of...

Xlibris • April 17, 2017

Islands and Rocks in the South China Sea: Post-Hague Ruling

Columbia, SC (May 5, 2017) – A new book, compiled by noted environmental policy writer, James Borton, and focused on the ongoing and illegal incursions by China into the South China Sea, was released today. In a unanimous ruling in 2016, the court of The Hague made it clear that under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) China had no legal basis to claim historic rights over waters in the South China Sea. In the favorable sweeping ruling for the Philippines, the decision stated that China had breached several UNCLOS articles, governing safety, the marine environment, and navigation at sea.