Undersea cables, geoeconomics, and security in the Indo-Pacific: Risks and resilience
Marine Policy (pdf link)
“A key finding of this article and the associated Special Issue of Marine Policy is that the extent to which undersea cables have been securitized varies across the Indo-Pacific region, as well as across the public and private sectors. This lack of shared understanding is important because it complicates the policymaking process. The securitization discourse has been most strongly internalized in countries such as Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the US. However, for many countries in the Indo-Pacific region—particularly those in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands—the dominant view of undersea cables is that they are essential to communication and economic development. In many of these areas, connectivity is currently very limited, so the primary concern of their governments is facilitating the construction of new cables, regardless of the nationality of the companies that might provide them. For these countries, non-routine man-made risks such as espionage and sabotage are the least salient, and the securitization of undersea cables has not been widely accepted.”
“Similarly, risk perception also varies across the public and private sectors. Private sector actors continue to be motivated primarily by business incentives, with the potential for profit or loss weighing most heavily in their calculations. Despite recent government interest, the private sector still plays the primary role in the cable industry. Cables are owned by combinations of private companies, state-owned firms, and international consortia from around the world, for example. The top three suppliers for undersea cables are US-based SubCom, Japan’s NEC, and France’s Alcatel Submarine Networks, and China’s HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) is growing quickly. The ‘hyperscalers’ Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon play a large and increasing role in the industry, purchasing approximately 66 % of available capacity [47]. Other companies are engaged in the cable industry as providers of undersea cable components and related services”
PDF download: https://kristigovella.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Govella-Undersea-Cables-Geoeconomics-and-Security-in-the-Indo-Pacific.pdf
See also: US Aims to Ban Chinese Technology in Undersea Telecommunications Cables