India, Oct. 29 -- The next global crisis may not begin with a missile crossing a border or a warship blockading a port. It may begin thousands of kilometers away, on the ocean floor, with the severing of a cable most people do not know exists.

Beneath the apparent borderlessness of the internet lies a physical network of submarine fiber-optic cables carrying the overwhelming majority of international data traffic. They sustain financial transactions, cloud computing, and government communications. Yet these networks traverse maritime corridors shaped by geopolitical competition, including the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, where regional instability has exposed the vulnerabilities of global connectivity.

The paradox is striking: ...