No One Is Coming to Fix the Subsea Cables

Subsea internet cables carry 99 percent of transoceanic digital traffic.1 Financial transactions, diplomatic communications, military data, and the mundane browsing of billions of people all travel through fiber-optic strands resting on the ocean floor. These cables require something that is in desperately short supply: international cooperation. They need it for route surveys, installation permits, maintenance windows, and emergency repairs across dozens of jurisdictions. They need it when a...