Kimberly Peters and Jennifer Turner's open access book Ocean Governance (Beyond) Borders (2025) is concerned with the persistence of bordering in ocean space, and the possibilities that might arise if we think beyond borders for modes of oceanic management, engaging the ocean’s fluid physicality and the mobile human and more-than-human life entangled with it. At a moment where ocean governance is a pressing topic amongst academics, policy makers, governments and non- governmental agencies alike, this book takes on one of the most overlooked but central devices underscoring many modes of oceanic management: the border.

The February 2026 issue of the International Journal of Maritime History (Volume 38 Issue 1) features an open access forum of seven articles exploring the history of maritime search and rescue from the perspective of states assuming these duties. The historic perspective lays the groundwork for understanding how modern states continue to use maritime search and rescue to achieve political objectives.

Luna Vives's book, The Gates of the Sea (2025), examines the Spanish government's efforts to reclaim search and rescue resources to prevent migrants from entering its territory, as well as the resistance of rescue workers who strive to avoid becoming enforcers of border control. Vives’s revelatory, deeply researched and accessible book grapples with both state methods of control and containment and, crucially, ways in which solidarity activism can thrive in unexpected places.

Available only in French, Arnaud Banos's book Moi non plus, je n'aime plus la mer (2025) explores what is really happening at Europe's maritime borders. From the Aegean Sea to the Atlantic route, through the Central Mediterranean, the English Channel/North Sea, and even Mayotte, Banos transports readers to the sea alongside an ordinary citizen who, out of conviction, became a sea rescuer at the age of 45. He ventures out to Europe's maritime borders, confronting the brutality of the sea and of humanity. Faced with poverty and distress, he discovers a fierce courage among the shipwrecked and the rescuers alike, in a world where the worst prevails — but where the best sometimes breaks through.

Ċetta Mainwaring's 2019 book At Europe's Edge explores the Mediterranean Sea as the deadliest region for migrants, highlighting the rising death toll and the EU's fragmented, short-sighted response. It examines why the EU focuses on border fortification, why migrants continue to risk their lives, and how southern EU states like Malta serve as migration gatekeepers. Combining ethnographic methods with macro analyses, the book reveals Malta's significant influence on EU migration governance and the crucial role of migrants in shaping policies and international relations. By focusing on the margins, it enhances our understanding of global migration, asylum, and border security.

Petra Molnar's 2024 book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence offers a global story of the sharpening of borders through technological experiments while also introducing strategies of togetherness across physical and ideological borders. It is a chilling exposé of the inhumane and lucrative sharpening of borders around the globe through experimental surveillance technology.