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” global geopolitics: the opening fo the Atlantic as a Mare Nostrum, and then a Mare Clausum: the Tordesillas Treaty and the Portuguese commercial routes during the XVIth Century (in blue) and the “española” ones (these latter ‘de longo curso’ and in white, here) the South Atlantic and the first globalization: ports (harbours) in Atlantic Basin and the Portuguese and ‘Spanish’ routes, 15th to 18th centuries revisiting horror: from the first to the early stages of the second wave of globalization: a view of the slave- trade, Africa-Americas, 1650-1860 a peak at the current reawakening of the South Atlantic, 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 at the Canal de Panama, visiting the chantier, 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’ A fast-forward, and a look at technological evolution: Panama Canal enlargement works, by 2012 In 2014, Mau Tempo no Canal? The enlargement was consumated on 6 June 6th, 2016, doubling its width, thus quadrupling its volume the works: “enlargement works and a passing luxury cruise ship”, March 2013 the whys and the hows. Waiting queue, Canal de 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 Nicaragua” (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. again, a view form above: Panama Canal and PortMiami Renew MOU, as the port welcomes its first NeoPanamax vessel (of course, a Chinese vessel): look at how it fits... reading things: global density of commercial exchanges, 2016-2017. The colours: in yellow, the more populated regions, in reddish, the less populated ones map of the regions with more intense emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, coded in colours. In green, the “greener” zones, which hue from yellow to red as it gets worse (2016). another background background look: ‘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 Now, cyber, i.e. non-classical geopoplitics: ‘Cyberspace’? the first Atlantic cable, a telegrafphy one: the very forst Morse code message, sent on August 16th, 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 September 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 again huge technological innovations taking place. Winding up, while still looking back: “1901, Eastern Telegraph cables”, as the TransPacific cables were only being sketched. Metastatising. some of the new dimensions of geopolitics: optic internet submarine cable map, 2017-2018 2017-2018, “optical submarine cable on the oceanic depths of the northern Atlantic Basin” as Mark Twain so aptly wrote, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot”. Optical fibers, zooming in: the internet and optical cables attached around here, up closer, still in 2015-2016, not very different from today’s patterns. Look at the Atlantic lines and compare Portugal (not Spain or France, with the Mediterranean bend) with Belgium, The Netherlands (i.e. The Flanders) and the UK; see, also, Denmark, . A ‘repetition’ of the patterns of colonial maritime connectivities? Problematising matters, both politically and economically : submarine cable map, 2009. Note the almost total absence of cables ‘attached’ to Portugal. So the pattern repetition, at least in the Portuguese case, actually is recent...!!! Why is that?!? What does it resonate with, or respond to? 2017-2018, optical submarine cables and the South Atlantic basin, the myth of South-South connections laid bare: in what concerns digital, those connections are nothing but wishful thinking optical cables in Asia, centered of the Straits of Malacca, 2017 Laying down optical submarine cables by France- Telecom-Marine, René Descartes; to the right, a "submarine optical cable cross-section”. Let us see more of both ships and cables another specialized ship more... rolling it all out laying out the cables laying down the cables connections: France Telecom-Orange launches- ACE submarine-cable in first 13 countries cable joint and deployer 'vehicle' this is how things go: deploying an optical cable burying a cable with a sort of plough self-explanatory... plowing the seabed: submarine fiber- optic cable being laid out deep down laying down the submarine fiber- optic cables Submarine Cable Marine Services how to create a network: submarine fiber-optic cables central nexus somewhere on the coast fiber-optic cables of all kinds more examples… a diagramatic take on what cables look like down there good morning, lights beams! details, and the scale of a small cable an alternative and a complement: parallel cables in a cluster • submarine-cable-20-638 “cable extension for the Southeast network, Alaska”, 2017 small and rare risks: of sharks and cables; now we have kevlar cables... at low depths, mending things down below; at depths of 4,5 kilometers one needs a really sturdy bathyscaph, and strong lights here is one example, the French HROV Ariane (tested before 2014, now one of the many in use for all sorts of purposes) there it is, deep down the ultimate form of hybrid warfare: 2015, National Interest, War Strategy - Attack threat and Defnse on Deep-Sea Fiber Optic Cables high and more recent risks, alarm bells. December 2015: Russian warships hovering above optical cable hubs. Such agressive moves have been repeated since then Russia hovering over cable hubs, 2015-2016, and the Western (US and UK) reaction Washington Post, December 22, 2017, Russian submarines are prowling around vital undersea cables. Understandably, it is making NATO nervous small fry...hawking over the cables “Russian Subs Are Sniffing Around Transatlantic Cables” (Defense One, January 17) “Russian Spy Submarines Are Tampering with”, The National Interest, August 19, 2018. Caption: “Undersea Cables That Make the Internet Work”. “Officials say presence has increased to levels unseen since the Cold War” (Reuters/Pavel Rebrov) “Evaluating the Russian Threat to Undersea Cables” (Lawfare, March 5) “Russia Could Attack Underwater Internet Cables, Warns British Military Chief”, BBC UK "military prioritising defence of undersea telecoms cables amid Russian threat" another Russian attack tactic: “Russian navy ship may be a threat to world’s internet cables. "A Russian navy research ship carrying mini- submarines is at the centre of fears about the risk of a catastrophic attack on underwater internet cables.", (The Australian, May 7th, 2019) yet another: Russian Yantar 4000 here goes: Yantar observed near Submarine Communications Cables in the Persian Gulf even without the Russians, really serious vulnerabilities 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. Is this safe? Are we really that stupid? once more, is this safe? now, really, is this the safe way to go? submarine fiber-optic cables for all to see carelessness: optical cables at hand, end of 2016, early 2017. Well, it doesn’t look safe to me, not when even penguins know where these critical infrastructures are... when we take these risks, are we stupid? Yes, we are. Obvious vulnerabilities, 2017 (Tumon Bay cable landing) a very tangible lack of security; submarine fiber-optic cables for all to see Portugal. optical cable SAT 3, arriving at the beach, Sesimbra, 2001 cable works, Sesimbra, 2009 low tech hig-tech, 2017: “Philippines’ Globe-Telecom strengthens connections to Boracay with subsea fiber-optic cable. Secure? here is how it all works, in one example: how India is connected to the internet moving up above, in 2017-2018 (before Elon Musk, still now, this accounts for less than 2,7% of our internet connections – 98,3% of the Internet flows through optical cables): the network of communication satellites and their orbits. As was the case with telegraphy, it all was first wired; later it became wireless. As concerns the internet connections, we still did not significantly go wireless, outside our homes… another, earlier and wider, take, 2013, on communication sattelites geostationary communication sattelites, 2015-2016; this does not include classified military satellites 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. back to context and interpretations: giving it all context: “world map of internet users”, re-scaled focal points: distribution-localization of friendship sharing on Facebook again, background,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. A truly “global visualization of every connection between two people on Facebook” echoes or ressonances? A very similar map; this one entitled , global GDP density, 2015 similar, but now when looking at twitter: the so-called geolocated tweets, 2015; echoes of galloping urbanization and of growth in the economy; assymetrical inequalities are nowadays (2019) getting to be even worse Breaking it down; the mobility flows of twitter users between 58 cities, 2015. The twitter city flows – a repeated pattern? 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 April 2018. What do they mean, the end of the “West”? April, 2018, “British possessions and British exclusive economic zones” (in pink) e “French possessions and NATO countries territoires, as well 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. Just a repetition of historical maritime imperial patterns, but one with no continuity? Why, how come? Political and economic voluntarism seems to be the answer “WhatsApp hack: Is any app or computer truly secure?”, BBC, May 15th, Wednesday, 2019. “WhatsApp has confirmed that a security flaw in the app let attackers install spy software on their targets' smartphones.That has left many of its 1.5 billion users wondering how safe the "simple and secure" messaging app really is.” “Russian bots rigged Voice Kids TV talent show result”. “Russian bots rigged Voice Kids TV talent show result”, BBC, Thursday, May 16th, 2019 “GozNym cyber-crime gang which stole millions busted”, BBC, Thursday, May 16th, 2019.“An international crime gang which used malware to steal $100m (£77m) from more than 40,000 victims has been dismantled.” “Trump declares national emergency over IT threats”, BBC, Thursday, May 16th, 2019. “President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency to protect US computer networks from "foreign adversaries”.