However I do wonder if we should just focus of getting space laser communications working to avoid some of these ground infrastructure issues, it seems much easier to cut wires than blow up space craft.
This means we will not really use satellite comms instead of fibre. That said there is definitely applications that benefit from optical satellite comms.
sure - people won't be able to watch netflix, but basic things like credit card processing, sending emails, getting emergency alerts out, ordering an uber, etc. would all work fine with a 99% reduction in bandwidth.
To cripple a countries infrastructure, you need to cut 100%. And satellite links mean you can no longer do that.
you had better hope people stop using modern webmails then, have you seen how insanely huge those pages are? we'd have to sit for HOURS to download them at dialup speeds
You could do a lot of damage with a few %, targeted in the right places, such as the so-called operational nets (as opposed to their business/IT nets) used by organisations that run critical national infrastructure. E.g. those that monitor / control power distribution.
While it may not entirely grind to a halt, taking out part of the capacity can still cause a lot of problems.
My MacBook doesnt know to not try for an Xcode update because a fiber link got cut somewhere.
I feel like everything would get congested and stay that way for a very long time.
Most users never until you put them in a situation where their performance is dependent of those factors, like gaming.
The reason why this happened yet is because it isn't very benefitial for the effort it would take. Any rouge state actor can use the Internet in their enemy territory for far more impacting operations (e.g. propaganda, psy ops).
Terrorism would be a more realistic thing, but terrorists don't typically have submarines.
Protection and mitigation are usually much more practical defenses than the threat of retaliation.
This was explored as a major topic in the Scandinavian TV investigation https://www.svtplay.se/uppdrag-granskning-skuggkriget
I'd be less surprised if the US were the ones doing the cutting
Countries like to demo their war capabilities to other nations simply as a kinda-threat.
Such demos help stop war happening, so I'm not against them. Wars only happen when two countries believe they will win a war. If one of those countries believes they will lose, they will just admit defeat before any actual fighting happens. If countries are aware of eachothers capabilities, there is less chance that both countries believe they will win.
Maybe there's a company in Israel that can help with that. ;)
What, like Nordstream? The risk is that the US cuts the cable when it benefits them. It is still a risk. Ditto for who is it who is going to be using the cables to spy on people.
Unless it's the US doing the cutting, of course.