On November 15, 2024, a Chinese-flagged cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3, laden with mineral fertilizer, left the Russian port of Ust-Luga and pushed into the Baltic Sea.
asserted
ship → flag → Sea
Two days later, the ship crossed over an undersea communications cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania.
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ship → cross → Sweden
The line went silent.
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line → go → ?
Less than 24 hours later, the Yi Peng 3 cruised past the only communications cable connecting Finland with Germany, and it too went dark.
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it → cruise → Germany
European investigators soon discovered both subsea cables had been physically severed and that the Yi Peng 3 was at the scene of both incidents.
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Peng → discover → incidents
It seemed like sabotage, but little could be done about it.
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little → seem → it
The countries impacted could only ask China for help with the investigation, which was declined.
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which → impact → investigation
The ship slipped away.
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ship → slip → ?
Since the Yi Peng incident, insidious sabotage has only become more prevalent around the world, and the pace is picking up.
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pace → become → world
Mysterious fires have swept weapon plants in Estonia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
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fires → sweep → Estonia
On Aug. 20, Romanian air force scrambled two F-16s to blow up an intruding robotic boat loitering near a Black Sea gas platform with hundreds of workers on board.
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force → scramble → board
And in September the FBI charged five people working for Russian intelligence services who were soliciting arson and murder around the world, including in the United States.
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who → charge → States
Security experts call these “hybrid attacks,” and they are getting more common and more violent.
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they → call → these
They are perpetuated in a gray zone between war and diplomacy, where shady actors are used to create deniability for a nation’s provocative actions.
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actors → perpetuate → actions
Now comes author Elisabeth Braw’s new book “Undersea War: The Battle to Control the Cables and Pipelines That Connect Our World,” to enlighten readers on another vulnerability to worry about — the underwater spaghetti bowl of pipelines and cables that support the modern world.
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that → come → world
The globe is stitched together with a network of underwater communication cables and energy pipelines.
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globe → stitch → cables
Braw somewhat grandiosely calls this “the Undersea Kingdom,” but makes a good case for its importance.
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Braw → call → importance
Cables down there transmit the world’s data, including trillions in daily financial transactions, and subsea pipelines provide fuel to entire continents.
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pipelines → transmit → continents
“Behind every email, credit card payment and Zoom call is an ocean worker,” Braw writes.
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Braw → write → email
Underwater pipelines “keep the lights on, heat the house.”
Yet this infrastructure is reachable by any bad guy with a civilian ship and a deep enough anchor.
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infrastructure → keep → ship
Making matters worse, soft targets underwater are vulnerable to attacks that are hard to attribute and therefore more tempting to try.
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that → make → attacks
“If undersea disaster struck and life had to revert to life circa 1858, people would definitely notice,” Braw explains at one point, as close to a chuckle as the book attempts.
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book → strike → chuckle
Braw, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, may be as dry as the topic is wet, but she’s certainly an expert.
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she → ’ → Strategy
She efficiently chronicles the underwater misbehavior of Russian and Chinese ships, which have ducked behind a lack of maritime laws and diplomatic bravado to sabotage undersea cables and pipelines with near impunity.
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which → chronicle → impunity
The existing legal framework that governs these cables is rooted in paperwork signed during the 1884 Paris Convention.
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that → exist → Convention
It authorizes virtually no enforcement options if the vessel in question is registered to another nation.
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vessel → authorize → nation
“Undersea Warfare” provides sobering real-world examples about the adventures of repeat offenders such as the NewNew Polar Bear, implicated in anchor-attacks on a communication line and a natural gas pipe in Finnish waters, and the now-notorious Yi Peng 3.
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Warfare → provide → waters
Perhaps the most infamous attack on this sea-bound empire was the Ukrainian sabotage of the all-important Nord Stream pipeline in 2022.
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attack → bind → 2022
Braw treats this incident in a disjointed, fragmented narrative, and the book compares poorly on this topic next to other recent entries such as Bojan Pancevski’s thrilling “The Nord Stream Conspiracy.”
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book → treat → Conspiracy
Still, not every book needs to “read like a thriller,” and “Undersea War” certainly won’t be confused for one.
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War → need → one
But it is certainly thorough, and the risks it presents are no doubt fear inducing.
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it → present → ?
One ship can bring life to a standstill.
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ship → bring → standstill
For example, in 2023 Chinese cargo ships severed the two communication cables that connected Taiwan’s disputed islands of Matsu to the rest of the world.
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that → sever → world
In an instant, the internet went down.
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internet → go → instant
“Suddenly, information could only be obtained by word of mouth.”
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information → obtain → mouth
Hospitals were forced to rely on generators.
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Hospitals → force → generators
“Digital payments could not be processed.
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payments → process → ?
The backbone enabling modern life was simply not there anymore.”
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backbone → enable → life
Investigators quickly determined which ships were responsible.
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ships → determine → ?
The boats were easily located, but they had left Taiwanese waters, and, thanks to the archaic laws governing the sea, the Taiwanese coast guard “didn’t have the authority to detain them.”
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guard → locate → them
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
