17 nations form alliance to secure undersea cables—structural gaps persist without US-China engagement or Global South inclusion
Original framing: “17 nations launch pact to protect vital undersea cables amid US, China absence” — South China Morning Post
The modern regime of undersea cable governance traces back to the 19th-century telegraph cables laid by colonial powers, which established a precedent for state and corporate control over seabed resources. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) formalized this framework, but it was negotiated without input from Global South nations, embedding structural inequities. Historical precedents like the 2008 cable cuts in the Mediterranean—linked to geopolitical tensions—show how vulnerabilities are exacerbated by centralized infrastructure.
The 17-nation pact to protect undersea cables is a symptom of a deeper systemic failure: a governance model that prioritizes state and corporate control over collaborative, ecologically grounded resilience.
Rooted in 19th-century colonial maritime law and reinforced by UNCLOS, this framework has historically excluded Global South nations, indigenous communities, and local actors who possess critical knowledge of oceanic patterns. The absence of the US and China is not merely a geopolitical gap but a reflection of how the pact’s militarized, state-centric approach fails to address the root causes of vulnerability—climate change, privatized infrastructure, and historical inequities. Indigenous stewardship models, decentralized redundancy, and community-led governance offer tangible alternatives, but they require dismantling the extractive logic that underpins the current system. The 'trickster' in this story is the cable itself, a silent messenger that exposes the absurdity of state-centric security in a world where resilience depends on cooperation, not control. True protection of undersea infrastructure demands a paradigm shift: from defense to stewardship, from exclusion to inclusion, and from profit to planetary health.