Cyberspace, cybersecurity, and the spread of optical submarine cables in the atlantic basin and beyond, 14 july 2017

the first Atlantic cable, a telegrafphy one: the very forst Morse code message, sent on August 16 th , 1858, by Queen Victoria to Presidene James Buchanan, was “Europe and America are un

a global Atlantic-centric take

as seen in Google Earth,

image, NASA, overlooking the North Atlantic

image, NASA, centered on the wide South Atlantic

A Room with a View

classical geopolítics: the opening fo the Atlantic as a Mare Nostrum, then a Mare Clausum: Tordesillas and the Portuguese commercial

routes during the XVIth Century (in blue) and “española” ones (these

latter ‘de longo curso’ and in white, here)

ports in Atlantic Basin and the Portuguese and ‘Spanish’ routes, cents

15th to 18th

a view of the slave-trade, Africa-Americas, 1650-1860

almost a decade ago: comparative global density of borne commercial exchanges (um mapa adaptado de um

sea-outro, do National Center for Ecological Analysis and

Synthesis, 2008)

global density of commercial exchanges , 2016 The colours: in yellow, the more populated regions, in reddish the less populated ones

mapa dos centros das emissões mais intensas de dióxido

de carbono, CO2, a cores A verde, o mais “verde”

(2016).

o reacender do Atlântico Sul, after the Panama enlargement, after

the eventual TTIP, if Trump allows it: the new (but surely not the

largest) Basin harbours - those being built, enlarged or in fieri – shall

mostly be located on the south of the Basin So will likely be active

militarization and underlying social movements

President Theodore Roosevelt visiting

the Canal do Panama, 1908

the almost finished Panama Canal, 1913

left, USS Missouri, crossing the Panama Canal, 1945, back from Japan to

the USA; right, the old and new routes of the Great White Fleet of

President Teddy Roosevelt, and the shortcut needed after the ‘Conquest

of the West’

works, by 2012

In 2014, Mau Tempo no Canal? The enlargement was

consumated on 6 June 6th, 2016, doubling its width

“enlargement works and a passing luxury

cruise ship”, March 2013

waiting queue, Canal do Panama (2013) on the Pacific side, and the alternatives for the ‘unbottling’ : that of the “Canal Seco” via Costa Rica (2012)and that of the “Canal de Nicarágua” (2014)via the latter one;

but both with China

la abertura del Canal de Panama alargado: Monday, June 6th, 2016, at

5:07 pm a Chinese ship blazing the new trail.

Panama Canal and PortMiami Renew MOU as the

Port Welcomes its first NeoPanamax vessel

‘coordinated migrations’ and urbanization, before the onset

of the ‘Syrian crisis’: map of coordinated migration, and, in

yellow shade, countries with biggest urbanization growth,

2002-2017

‘Cyberspace’? Is it really a space?

the first Atlantic cable, a telegrafphy one: the very forst Morse code message, sent on August

16 th , 1858, by Queen Victoria to Presidene James Buchanan, was “Europe and America are united by telegraphy Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace and good will toward men” The following Setember the connection was broken Its permanent technical reposition , carried out by the Atlantic Telegraph Company , owned by the same John Pender who had laid the first cables 8 years earlierwas only finished in 1866 The first TransPacific cables, running across from

S Francisco to Hawaii, Guam, and the Philppines, were only laid on 1902-1903 Once agian huge

innovations taking place.

winding back, ainda olhando para o passado:

“ 1901 , Eastern Telegraph cables”, as the

TransPacific cables were only being sketched

some of the new diomensions of geopolitics:

optic internet submarine cable map, 2015

2015, “optical submarine cable on the oceanic

depths of the northern Atlantic Basin”

as Mark Twain so aptly wrote, “History does not repeat irself, but it does

rhyme a lot” Optical fibers, zooming in: the internet and optical cables

attached around here, up closer, also in 2015 Look at the lines and compare Portugal (not Spain or France) with The Netherlands and the

UK A ‘repetition’ of the patterns of colonial maritime connectivities?

Problematising: submarine cable map, 2009 Note the almost total absence of cables ‘attached’ to Portugal So the pattern repetition is new !!! Why is that?!? What does it ressonate

with, or respond to?

2015 , optical submarine cables and the South Atlantic basin, the myth of South-South connections laid bare: in

what concerns digital, it is nothing but wishful thinking

optical cables in Asia, centered of the

Straits of Malacca, 2015

Laying down optical submarine cables by France-Telecom-Marine, René Descartes; to

the right, a "submarine optical cable

cross-section"

optical data cables

details, and the scale of a small cable

deploying an optical cable

cable joint and deployer 'vehicle'

burying a cable with a sort of

• submarine-cable-20-638

“cable extension for the Southeast

network, Alaska”, 2017

alarm bells, December 2015: Russian warships hovering

above optical cable hubs

Launching the inter island cable from Toco while the Cable Ship Intrepid waits offshore to begin laying the cable on the sea floor between Tobago

and Trinidad Vulnerabilities

Russia hovering over cable hubs, 2015-2016,

and the Western (US and UK) reaction

carelessness: optical cables at hand, end of 2016,

early 2017

Are we stupid? Yes, we are Obvious vulnerabilities, 2017 (Tumon Bay cable landing)

low tech hig-tech, 2017: “Philippines’ Globe-Telecom strengthens connections to Boracay with subsea fiber-optic cable Secure?

up above, in 2017 (before Elon Musk): the network of communication sattelites and their

orbits

another, earlier and wider, take, 2013,

on communication sattelites

geostationary communication sattelites,

2015

Here is one of them, in 2016, one of ours: “an Advanced Extremely

High Frequency communications satellite relays secure

communications for the United States and other allied countries”

a WildBlue satellite Internet dish, and a

foldable Bigpond internet satellite dish; a

competitive market growing

the back panel of a satellite modem, with coaxial connections for both incoming and outgoing signals,

and an Ethernet port for connection.

“world map of internet users”,

re-scaled

focal points: distribution-localization of

frienship sharing on Facebook

2016: the ‘gravitational force’ of the geography of the global:

connections and friendships local, regional, and global: “global

visualization of every connection between two people on Facebook”

What a Wonderful World, 2016: Paul Butlers map of local, regional, and

global Facebook friendshipsthe clear preference of multiple connection hubs to the local, ‘the economiy, stupid’ , demography, and rising

patterns of urbanization

echoes or ressonances? A very similar map,

this one, global GDP density, 2015

similar too as for twitter: the so-called geolocated tweets, 2015; echoes of galloping urbanization and

of growth in the economy

the mobility flows of twitter users between 58 cities,

2015 The twitter city flows : a repeated pattern?

globalization, desglobalization, or a new emergent multipolarity? Imports and exports, by country, in 2014

Poliitcally ‘centralized’ Action vs Decentered Choices: an example of selectivity as concerns the old social media: countries compressed or

streched according the the news on them published by Guardian Online

from 2010 to 2012

potential connectivities, chokepoints and power, in the

Atlantic Basin and its surroundings: possessions françaises, in

July 2017 What do they mean, the end of the “West”?

July, 2017, “British possessions and British exclusive economic zones”

as those of our Allies, in the Atlantic Basin and some of its

‘chokepoints’” Under the Cape if Good Hope, French and Norwegian

islands and archipelagoes

again my hypothesis of reduplication of maritime ‘colonial’ connectivity and centrality, seen with perhaps greater graphic clarity in a neater map background How can we

interpret this?

Bis A repetition of maritime colonial patterns? But why ?