Securing the Digital Lifelines of Global Connectivity |
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Securing the Digital Lifelines of Global Connectivity
As subsea cables power the modern digital world, the United States is working with partners including India to secure these vital networks and strengthen connectivity across the Indo-Pacific.
Beneath the vast waters of the Indo-Pacific lies a largely unseen but indispensable network powering the modern world. Subsea cables, often overlooked in public discourse, are essential to global connectivity, economic exchange, and strategic coordination.
“Subsea cables carry over 95 percent of international internet traffic, supporting everything from cross-border payments to cloud and AI services,” says an economic officer at U.S. Embassy New Delhi. “Because so many routes run through Indo-Pacific chokepoints, any cut or compromise there can send shockwaves through the global economy.” This is why securing subsea cables has become a frontline strategic issue.
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For the United States and the many countries they connect, these cables are economic lifelines. “Asia-focused routes support a vast share of U.S. digital trade and services exports, and one recent estimate suggests that connectivity with the region via subsea systems adds on the order of $169 billion a year to the U.S. economy,” the officer says.
“They are also the critical backbone of the AI and cloud era,” she adds, pointing to investments by major U.S. technology firms in trans-Pacific and regional cable systems to enhance speed, security, and resilience.
The strategic dimension is equally significant. “Militarily, the same fiber-optic networks are indispensable to the United States for national security, logistics, and coalition operations,” she says. “We need to protect them from physical and technical threats because these cable networks hold a real impact on how power is exercised in the Indo-Pacific.”
A U.S. Navy utilitiesman performs maintenance on subsea cables at........