Preview
Creation Date
3-17-2016
Description
[From the Introduction to my article on the subject:] Submarine communication cables form the basis of the worldwide information network. They facilitate the majority of internet traffic and digital exchange. Their manufacture, maintenance and control is a multibilliondollar industry. They facilitate the world economy. The severance of a connection could cause billions of dollars in economic damage.The majority of submarine cables lie beneath international waters, along the ocean floor. They are not upon sovereign territory. They do not sail the oceans blue. The citizenship of their owners, and their users, may be murky or myriad. They are beyond the traditional protections of nations.This paper seeks to analyze the reasonableness of this framework of analysis. /Reductio/, it asks the simple question: may a nation go to war to protect its cables? It is hoped that clarification of question through academic analysis might preempt its clarification in the court of war.