Dr. Brendon Cannon’s research examines the growing security threats to undersea communication cables, which carry over 99% of global digital traffic and underpin transformative technologies like AI and quantum computing. Using expert surveys and interviews, Brendon has analyzed how vulnerability varies across regions, geopolitical tensions, and cable types. His current research project at BSIA expands this by adopting a “regional seas” approach, focusing on the Gulf of Guinea, Western Indian Ocean, and the Sea of Japan, to develop regionally tailored governance frameworks. This contributes to broader debates on technology governance by addressing how critical infrastructure can be secured amid geopolitical fragmentation.
About the Speaker
Brendon J. Cannon is Assistant Professor of International Security at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Utah, USA (2009). His research is at the nexus of international relations, security studies, and geopolitics. He has published on topics related to regional security and geopolitics, the arms industry, and shifting distributions of power across the Indo-Pacific. Cannon’s articles appear in Defence Studies, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Asian Security and Third World Quarterly. His new book, edited with Kei Hakata, is Indo-Pacific Strategies: Navigating Geopolitics at the Dawn of a New Age (Routledge, 2021). He joined Khalifa University in 2016.
