In this episode, Douglas Guilfoyle and Tamsin Phillipa Paige are joined by Dr Tara Davenport (NUS Centre for International Law) and Dita Liliansa (UNSW Sydney) for a deep dive into the law, history, and strategic significance of submarine cables, the quietly critical infrastructure underpinning the modern internet (and increasingly, power grids). From the colonial origins of telegraph cables to the oddly antique legal framework still doing duty today (hello, 1884), the panel unpacks who regulates cables across territorial seas, EEZs, archipelagic waters, and the high seas, and why “grey zone” sabotage in places like the Baltic keeps raising hard jurisdictional questions (including a certain provocative word: piracy). They also tackle cable geopolitics in the South China Sea, the rise of “smart” sensing cables, and why the law of armed conflict is alarmingly undercooked for something this essential.

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of au Lait