Via Foreign Policy, a look at how U.S. assistance in developing tech infrastructure could help achieve Washington’s strategic and diplomatic goals by countering Russia and China:

Submarine fiber-optic cables traversing oceans and connecting the African continent have fast emerged as a geopolitical hotspot for the West. As of late, U.S. foreign policy has been captivated by strategic maneuvering in response to China’s surveillance balloon and plans to implement a national ban on the world’s most popular app, TikTok, which has ties to Beijing.

Meanwhile, as extensive plans to expand cable networks are being executed by coalitions of investors and international partners, the West cannot lose sight of other looming national security risks as undersea cables and other information and communications technologies (ICT) in Africa now function as modern pressure points for authoritarian regimes to supplant Western influence and secure competitive advantages.

The continent is experiencing the most rapid growth of international bandwidth on the planet, and accelerated construction of African subsea cables gives significant leverage to China while creating a security vulnerability due to the risk of Russian meddling. The West would be mistaken to overlook the implications of African submarine cable proliferation for modern geopolitical strategies between global powers.

Submerged beneath the sea, these small tubes of glass and light hold the promise of facilitating greater internet access across Africa, enhancing connection among the continent’s people and to the rest of the world, and linking a budding network of data centers and digital infrastructure. Reliable internet connectivity is a crucial component of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and Africa has captured substantial investment from private industry titans, including Google and Meta, to digitize some of world’s least-connected countries.

Global reliance on subsea cable systems accompanies heightened demand and the growth of cloud computing, extending the power of Beijing’s hegemonic foothold on the continent (thanks to Chinese debt financing and infrastructure construction) and providing Moscow a target for spying, tapping, or cyberattacks—causing direct or indirect physical harm through the exploitation of digital systems and processes—in its bid to antagonize the United States and its Western allies.

There are upward of 552 active or planned submarine cables transmitting more than 95 percent of global telecommunications traffic across Africa, Europe, and the Americas. They serve as crucial ICT infrastructure tucked mostly out of sight—encircling the African continent like a cocoon.

For more than 20 years, cables have enabled digital connection in Africa, spanning a burgeoning undersea network system along the coastline, comprised of 72 cables active or under construction. These cables can improve internet speeds, connect remote communities, and advance economic progress while supporting various machine learning and AI applications. Despite the immense cost, these undertakings are a necessary means to an end. African leaders expect to justify this venture by creating a skilled labor force, sparking economic growth, and not allowing the continent to be left behind in this next iteration of digital transformation.

This technological revolution has gone hand in hand with Africa’s deepening relationship with China, which has risen since the 1990s to a consequential position in the global fiber-optic cable sector beyond the Pacific. Investments in Africa have become a significant pillar of Beijing’s foreign-policy agenda. Chinese leaders recognize these technologies are instrumental for delivering their tech products and influence throughout the world.