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Who Polices the Abyss? Lawlessness at 4,000 Meters: China, Russia, and the Corporate Rush That Is Outrunning the World’s Only Seabed Regulator

The submersible Mir-1 descended through the Arctic twilight on August 2, 2007, its floodlights cutting narrow corridors through water dense with drifting ice. Nearly three miles below the surface, the vehicle settled onto the seabed at the geographic North Pole, a place no human craft had ever reached. Then, in a gesture crafted for maximum geopolitical theater, the Russian expedition planted a titanium tricolor flag into the silty floor of the Arctic Ocean.

The Silent War Beneath the Arctic Seas: Why Securing Undersea Cables is a National Security Imperative

Few domains are as overlooked yet as indispensable to modern power projection as the ocean floor. Nearly all of the world’s internet traffic, more than 95 percent, transits through roughly 570 subsea fiber-optic cables. These systems underpin not only the global economy but also the operational command and control of modern militaries. Despite their centrality, they remain vulnerable, exposed, and increasingly subject to foreign interference.

When the Lights Went Dark in Penghu: Why Taiwan should employ SMART Cables for strategic defense

On a cold February morning in 2025, residents of Taiwan’s Penghu Islands awoke to an unsettling silence. The whir of routers and the flow of digital communications, so ordinary as to be unnoticed, had vanished. ATMs blinked uselessly, online banking froze, and even the Taiwanese Coast Guard’s secure lines faltered.

Saving Taiwan’s Silicon Scientists: The Coming War for Taiwan’s Semiconductor Talent

In February 2023, CIA Director William Burns revealed that, according to U.S. intelligence, Xi Jinping had ordered the Chinese military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Since then, China’s coercion has shifted from sporadic brinkmanship to a steady campaign of naval maneuvers and near-daily air incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone.

Bridging Trust and Strategy: A U.S. - Pakistan Partnership at a Crossroads

Last week in Washington, I had the honor of moderating a fireside chat with Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and former Foreign Minister of Pakistan, as part of a special convening hosted by the Truman National Security Project.