ghost states

The South China Sea carries with it an increasingly critical array of islands and atolls whose seemingly insignificant landmass is emerging as a contentious player in the sino-global politic. Sea level rise and a growing environmental degradation of the region threaten an erasure of these small rocks and reefs. Their disappearance implies significant changes in economic zones and trade routes; for these reasons surrounding nation states have engaged in a massive military and political effort to secure these regions for their agency.

Structural fortifications have commenced to buffer against the growing threats of a rising sea level, taking forms ranging from titanium breakwaters and dams to tactical coral reef farms. The future of these projects will promise the fate of these new and possible ghost states. The advent of ecological infrastructure as a mode of practice provides a new and useful lens through which new possibilities might be hybridized securing the political and economic futures along with an ecological impetus.