The New Arteries of Power

In 1893, a few decades after the first transatlantic cable was laid, Rudyard Kipling published a poem about the marvels of “The Deep-Sea Cables.” As communication became nearly instantaneous, Kipling heralded the connectivity that was previously unimaginable, writing, “Let us be one!”

Over a century later, telegraph lines have given way to fiber-optic cables, but their unifying promise has all but faded. The seabed has become an arena of great-power competition, sabotage, and surveillance. Fiber-optic data cables carry 99 percent of transoceanic digital traffic, including financial flows and government, diplomatic, and military communications. But as risks grow and trust erodes, global cabling is splintering into U.S.-led, Chinese-led, and nonaligned blocs, with routes and landings increasingly mirroring geopolitical alignment rather than commercial logic.