the Realpolitik of undersea cables
About this episode
Geoff Huston discusses the strategic implications and historical context of undersea cables in global communications.
In this episode of PING, APNIC Chief Scientist Geoff Huston explores the complex landscape of undersea cables. They have always had a component of strategic interest, communications and snooping on communications has been a constant since writing was invented, and the act of connecting two independent nation states by a telegraph wire invokes questions of ownership and jurisdiction right from the start. After the initial physics of running a long distance wire to make an electric circuit was worked out, telegraph services became a vital part of a states economic and information gathering processes. This is why at the beginning of world war 1 and again in world war 2 the submarine cables linking europe out into the world were cut by the British Navy: forcing the communications flows into radio meant it was possible to listen in, and with luck (and some smart people) decode the signals. Modern day fibre optic communications are no different in this regard. Many incidents of cable cutting have simple explanations, not all paths the subsea cables run through are especially deep and in shallow waters near landfall with lots of fish, trawlers cause a lot of damage. But there is now…
People in this episode
Host: Geoff Huston
Topics covered
- undersea cables
- strategic interest
- communications
- fiber optic communications
- state actors
- jurisdiction
Keywords
- undersea cables
- telegraph
- fiber optic
- communications
- state actors
- cable cutting
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: APNIC
Places: Europe
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