The Data Roads under the Seas. American Hegemony over the Global Undersea Cable Network and its Potential Challengers

The global undersea cable network is the backbone of the internet and hence of contemporary numeric-based civilization, as it carries 99% of all transoceanic communications. The main goal of this thesis is to understand how the U.S., the current cable network hegemon, maximizes its power and interests by leveraging the global undersea cable network, and whether China or Russia threatens American hegemony over the global undersea cable network? In the first part, I will show that great powers have throughout history behaved as hegemony-seekers leveraging the global undersea cable network to maximize their power. In the second part, I will examine the current American hegemony over the global undersea cable network. In the third part, I will examine the potential challengers or threats to U.S. hegemony, namely Russia and China. In the conclusion, I will provide some recommendations for the U.S. in order to address these threats.