Katherine Morton, BA (Hons), MA (Sussex), PhD (ANU)

Senior Fellow, Department of International Relations, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies

Tel: +61 2 6125 2472
Fax: +61 2 6125 8010
Email: katherine.morton@anu.edu.au
Location: Room 2.07, Hedley Bull Centre

Biographical statement

Dr Katherine Morton is a specialist on China's domestic politics and international relations with a particular focus on environmental governance, non-traditional and human security, and the role of NGOs and civil society. Her book on International Aid and China's Environment was the first academic study on the effectiveness of international ideas and practices in building capacity to address environmental problems in China. For the past six years she has been conducting research on the Tibetan Plateau looking at the impacts of climate change and the implications for water security. Other research projects include a study on the domestic drivers of China's response to global governance; and regional ecological security. She is also the Chief Investigator in a Ford Foundation-funded collaborative research project on Sino-Australian security relations. She speaks French, Italian, Mandarin, intermediate Japanese, and she is now learning Tibetan.

Dr Morton was a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford University, from August 2008 until July 2009.

Research interests

China and the world; global environmental governance; the role and influence of NGOs in world politics; and non-traditional and human security.

Key publications

• 'Climate Change and Security at the Third Pole', Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 53(1) February-March 2011.
• 'Policy Case Study: The Environment', in William Joseph, ed., Politics in China: An Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• 'China and the Global Environment: Learning from the Past, Anticipating the Future,' Lowy Institute Paper 29, Sydney: Lowy Institute, 2009.
• 'Sustainability and Underdevelopment: Complex Tradeoffs on the Tibetan Plateau', International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 5(1) May 2009.
• 'China and Environmental Security in the Age of Consequences', Asia-Pacific Review, 15(2) November 2008: 52-67.
• 'Transnational Advocacy at the Grassroots: Benefits and Risks of International Cooperation', in Peter Ho and Richard Louis Edmonds, eds, China's Embedded Activism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement, New York: Routledge, 2007, pp. 195-215.
• 'Civil Society and Marginalisation: Grassroots NGOs in Qinghai Province', in Heather Xiaoquan Zhang, Bin Wu, and Richard Sanders, eds, Marginalisation in China: Perspectives on Transition and Globalisation, Aldershot: Ashgate 2007, pp. 239-56.
• 'Surviving an Environmental Crisis: Can China Adapt?', Brown Journal of World Affairs, 13(1) Fall/Winter 2006: 63-75.
• International Aid and China's Environment: Taming the Yellow Dragon, Routledge Studies on China in Transition, London and New York: Routledge, 2005.

Career highlights

Dr Morton previously worked for Matsushita Electric and Industry Corporation Ltd in Osaka, Japan. She was also the Deputy Director of the East Asia Programme at the University of Sussex, England, and worked in Europe as a consultant on emerging markets and political developments in East Asia. She has travelled extensively in Asia working in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and China.