Around 95% of international internet traffic, as well as vast amounts of energy and data, travels through fibre-optic cables and pipelines resting silently on the ocean floor. Despite being the invisible backbone of modern civilisation, this critical infrastructure remains largely unprotected and increasingly vulnerable to hybrid warfare and deliberate sabotage.

In this episode of The Big Picture, host Roger welcomes Elisabeth Braw, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of The Undersea War: Ancient Law, Modern Sabotage, and the Struggle for the Ocean Floor.

Together, they dive deep into the hidden vulnerabilities of our global maritime order, discussing:

The Invisible Backbone: How a network of subsea cables—dating back to Victorian-era telegraph lines—powers our modern daily existence.
Modern Sabotage & Shadow Fleets: Real-world case studies of subsea damage, including the cutting of Taiwan’s Matsu Islands cables and the "Christmas Day Massacre" in the Gulf of Finland involving the Russian-linked vessel Eagle S.
Legal Grey Zones: Why UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) and current international maritime law struggle to hold bad actors accountable in Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
Private Tech Giants as Cable Owners: The geopolitical implications of tech giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon owning subsea infrastructure—and the risks of private cyber-retaliation.
A Path Forward: Braw’s proposal for an International Seabed Protection Alliance and a tribute to the "cable surgeons" who repair damaged infrastructure under extreme conditions.

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Producer: James Hodgson

A Goalhanger Podcast

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