For an extended period, research on maritime political geography remained scarce under the dominance of terracentrism in political geography. Moreover, the field of maritime political geography has yet to establish a unified research paradigm and make theoretical dialogues between Chinese and Western scholarship. To address these gaps, this study conducts a bibliometric analysis and systematic reading of 369 English-language articles from 14 international journals and 156 Chinese-language articles from CNKI up to May 2025. Based on this, it identifies and synthesizes six core research themes: marine ontology, sea power and geopolitical strategy, territorial disputes and maritime delimitation practices, migration and border control at sea, political ecology and marine environmental protection, and marine governance and spatial planning. Region-focused studies reveal significant divergences among the "three oceans and two seas": the Pacific prioritizes military strategy, the Atlantic emphasizes economic collaboration, the Arctic Ocean highlights techno-political issues, the Mediterranean centers on migration governance, while the South China Sea concentrates on sovereignty disputes. Grounded in the core principles of political geography, this study defines maritime political geography as a subfield of political geography that examines the interaction between political activities (or power relations) and maritime spaces. Its core research objects encompass the spatial patterns of marine political power, alongside political geographical issues concerning marine resource allocation, maritime border delimitation, and geopolitical strategic competition. Drawing on key concepts in political geography such as territoriality, scale, and governmentality, the paper further develops a conceptual framework for analyzing maritime political geographical phenomena and processes, centered on the themes of "resources-delimitation-strategy" and the interactions between politics (power) and maritime ontology. It then outlines the future research directions for maritime political geography in China, including theoretical innovation and disciplinary development, thematic expansion, and the broadening of geographical coverage. The main contribution of this study lies in systematically proposing, for the first time, a research framework and a prospective research agenda for maritime political geography grounded in the foundational insights of political geography. It provides a basis for future scholarly dialogue and expansion in this emerging field, while also enriching the discipline of political geography and enhancing its theoretical explanatory power.

Coordinating development and security is a key pathway to promote high-quality development and prevent the major risks in border regions. This study deconstructs the types of border regional functions based on the "development-security" coordinated orientation, taking the Yunnan-Guangxi border region of China as an example. It uses a projection pursuit clustering model to measure the level of border regional functions and employs a series of spatiotemporal combinations and mapping models to explore the transformation process and carry out regional optimization. The results show that: (1) There is a spatiotemporal negative relationship between the development and security functions in border regions, transitioning from strong trade-offs to synergy, and presenting a divergent pattern of higher in the Yunnan section and lower in the Guangxi section, with regional differences stemming from the inter-provincial development imbalance between the two sections. (2) The adaptability of border regional functions shows an upward trend, with the coupling coordination and matching degree of development and security functions gradually strengthening. The adaptability is relatively high in the Yunnan section, with the best performance in border ports and central urban areas. (3) The border regional functions transition from low to high levels and have the ability to converge to an equilibrium level. The transformation convergence speed in the Guangxi section is higher than that in the Yunnan section, but the transformation convergence process has certain spatiotemporal inertia and spatial dependence. (4) Based on the dominant functions, border regions are divided into three types of spaces: strategic heartland, opening-up frontier, and security barrier. Each type of space is supported by maintenance, improvement and restructuring measures, ultimately integrating management to define 8 types of border functional regions and proposing optimization pathways. Therefore, creating stable security functional areas, constructing livable development functional areas, and cultivating green opening-up functional areas are important ways to optimize and achieve the sustainable development patterns in border regions.

Afghanistan has been historically served as a key arena for the interaction and strategic competition among multiple geo-actors, presenting a typical case for analyzing the two-level game that shapes the geo-setting. In theory, there is a clear lack of perspective and methodology in the interaction between geo-actors, geo-setting, and international/domestic politics. In response, two-level game theory is employed to construct an analytical framework for the changing geo-setting to examine the evolution of Afghanistan's geo-setting from January 19, 2018, to August 15, 2021, focusing on the domestic competition between the Ghani government and the Taliban. The results reveal that: (1) The transformation of Afghanistan's geo-setting is the inevitable outcome of the two-level game between domestic and international geo-actors. The power struggles among key domestic geo-actors form the core mechanism of this game, while international great power competition constitutes its geopolitical framework. Geo-actors utilise the geo-setting elements as mediators and tools for projection and interaction, reshaping both domestic and international geo-setting. (2) The Ghani government and the Taliban represent the central domestic geopolitical actors in Afghanistan. Their fundamental strategic objectives-consolidating political authority and restoring a tribal emirate-drive them to dynamically navigate international and domestic geopolitical networks. These actors reciprocally create strategic traps for each other across varying scales and domains to secure political opportunities and survival spaces. (3) Afghanistan's domestic and international games, along with their respective geo-setting, exhibit clear stagism. Before and after the Doha Agreement, the strategies, forms, and complexity of multi-actor competition diverged significantly, with the geopolitical environment transitioning from "domestic chaos and external pressure" to "domestic collapse and external confrontation". (4) Afghanistan's foreign policy consistently lacked continuity and coherent strategic postures in domestic-international interactions, constrained by fragmented geo-settings, dynamic domestic politics, and the entanglement of multiple geo-actors. The conclusion discusses the applicability of the two-level game model, its research prospects, and implications for China.

The resilience of the Earth system has been critically undermined, rapidly deviating from the stability of the Holocene. In response to the dual imperative of enhancing Earth system resilience and ensuring human well-being, conceptual frameworks such as Planetary Boundaries (PBs) and Safe and Just Operating Spaces (SJOS) have been proposed. While PBs and global-scale SJOS frameworks have advanced significantly, spatial governance still lacks scale-matched and context-adaptive boundaries for environmental safety and social justice. Moreover, a limited understanding of downscaling methods, cross-scale linkages, and complex interactions poses major challenges for effective governance across local-to-global scales. In this study, we review methods for defining PBs and SJOS, focusing on thresholds, states, and scaling approaches. A nested dynamic system of spatial hierarchies is constructed to reveal multi-scale structures spanning continental country, regional, urban, and local landscape levels. Top-down constraints, bottom-up accumulations, and cascading effects driven by material cycles, energy flows, and trade are examined, along with potential scenarios involving trade-offs and synergies among different processes. By applying and integrating scaling approaches such as historical responsibility, carrying capacity, and landscape simulation, China aims to establish scientifically grounded, equitable, and scale-compatible regional governance in the future. Moving forward, efforts will focus on addressing cross-scale interactions to mitigate adverse cascades and irreversible risks. In alignment with China's science-poicy-practice practices, future initiatives will integrate multiple downscaling methods to allocate scale-specific responsibilities and project sustainable scenarios. These strategies will support the realization of the "Beautiful China" initiative and operation within safe and just boundaries.