On the other side of the world, the captain of the Chinese-owned ship Hong Tai He was convicted by a Taiwanese court of cutting an underwater telecommunications cable in February 2025 and sentenced to three years in prison in June 2025. The island democracy’s legislature later amended its laws to increase penalties for intentional damage to underwater cables or pipelines and allow up to seven years in prison.
There have been several notable incidents this year involving both overt and covert threats to undersea infrastructure, including Iranian efforts to impose tariffs on operators of undersea cables traversing the disputed Strait of Hormuz. On the other hand, a joint operation involving the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States confronted Russian submarines that were practicing using a new technology to deactivate underwater cables in Arctic waters near the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
What will happen when the undersea backbone of the Internet, not to mention crucial energy infrastructure, is no longer protected by a near-universal international agreement? Ars spoke to Braw to learn more. (The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Elisabeth Braw is the author of the book. submarine warfare.
Credit: Hachette Book Group (cover) / Annabel Moeller (photo by author)
Elisabeth Braw is the author of the book. submarine warfare.
Credit: Hachette Book Group (cover) / Annabel Moeller (photo by author)
Ars Technica: There is a lot of suspicion and tension surrounding underwater infrastructure right now. But it seems that for quite a few decades, even during the Cold War, there was a largely functioning broad international framework in which countries generally agreed not to mess around.
Fear: Exactly. It worked for so long, and that’s why it’s so scary to see that that system that really depends on everyone doing the right thing and being good citizens of the seabed, so to speak, may not work for much longer.
Ars Technica: I know it’s not really a single factor, but I’m curious what you would highlight as the key factors contributing to why we’re seeing a breakdown in that overall agreement.
Fear: When you think about the absolutely crucial nature of undersea cables and pipelines, especially undersea cables… if they were to be disrupted for even a minute, it would cause massive disruption not only to the New York City area, but also to New York as a financial center. It would cause operational losses, but also the loss of all that money that passes through the cables every second of every day.
So if we think about the enormous importance of undersea cables to modern societies and economies, that makes them incredibly attractive as a target. Whereas during the Cold War we had telephone cables, but there weren’t as many of them and we didn’t use them as much. Yes, they were used for international telephone calls and telegraphic messages could also be sent. But no one sent telegrams 24 hours a day and no one made international phone calls 24 hours a day. So they were there, but they were less crucial.
