VISUAL
Many look at a map and think the World has been fully explored. Every Frontier known, every border drawn, no room left to grow.
But that map is 2D. Look down — the un-explored depths of the Ocean. Look up — the vast expanse of Space. Look north — the thawing ice expanding the Arctic opportunity.
Three interdependent Frontiers. All critical to the emerging New System.
The hegemon who controls these Spheres will control the System.
New System. New Spheres. New Opportunities.
SIGNAL
Weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, someone cut the undersea Ocean cables running out of Svalbard — the point where the Arctic hands the Internet up to Space. That infrastructure is critical for the transmission of essentially all Internet data — from Amazon packages to the trillions of dollars that clear through SWIFT every day.
Nord Stream sabotage followed thereafter: “Just as key undersea 'Technology' cables were damaged, so were key undersea 'Energy' pipelines — no matter the actor or incentive, the importance is clear.”
The subsea cable-cutting sequence did not stop there. The Baltic Sea. The Taiwan Strait. Then the Red Sea… before the Iran escalation.
Svalbard ‘22 → Nord Stream ‘22 → Baltic ‘23–’24 → Taiwan Strait ‘24+ → Red Sea ‘25
Summary: Critical Infrastructure lives in the Ocean.
Just as there is a lot more to the un-explored depths below, there is equally abundant opportunity above.
Control of Space = Control of Communications = Control of War = Control of Security. Control is Strength; Lack of Control (Dependence) is Weakness.
The US Space Stack is deeply dependent upon SpaceX — hence why the hegemon ‘facilitated’ the funding. From May 2026: “The IPOs that are flowing are ones the hegemon wants funded — from Semiconductors to Space — purposefully inflating areas that are critical to National Security.”
SpaceX accounted for 87% of U.S. orbital launches in 2024 and controls nearly two-thirds of all active satellites — more than the rest of the world combined.
Punchline: SpaceX enables the underlying Technological feasibility of the Golden Dome; no SpaceX, no Golden Dome.
The most expensive missile shield in history hinges on one company.
China is building the mirror — CASC and LandSpace for rockets, BeiDou for navigation, Qianfan targeting 15K+ satellites by 2030. Thousands of AI-enabled satellites planned for orbit — solar powered, no cooling required.
The two Space stacks are becoming quite clear, choose your fighter:
Summary: Critical Infrastructure is increasingly being built in Space.
And the nexus of it all resides in the Arctic — where the Ocean and Space meet. Where key communications chokepoint sit. Where 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of gas lay untapped. Where new trade routes are emerging enabled by ice that is now melting.
So what does a severed undersea cable have to do with a missile shield?
Everything.
Refresh from the Arctic piece, back in March 2025:
“The Battle for AI Supremacy — ‘Space Race 2.0’ within Cold War 2.0 — is composed of multiple building blocks (Semiconductors, Compute, Data, Algorithms) across multiple spheres (Arctic, Space, Ocean).”
All three Spheres contain critical elements necessary to strengthening and future-proofing each of the Pillars of Power: Technology, Energy, & Money.
That is why the hegemons are so keenly focused on these realms.
Dr Pippa’s Hot War in Cold Place — different perspective, same conclusion.
IMPLICATION
Many attempt to rank the Three Spheres in importance. But they are inter-dependent, not interchangeable. The sum is greater than its parts.
One System encompassing Three Critical Spheres:
“AI is the 'operating system' that is both enabled by and accelerates the exploration of each of these spheres. And each sphere is a unique piece in the same overall Power puzzle.
The Arctic contains critical (Ocean/Space) connectivity points, the Ocean houses the subsea cable backbone, and Space hosts constellations of satellites — a massive interconnected Network that is foundational for all Communications, notably interplanetary.”
The Arctic is where Space touches the ground: polar ground stations, launch sites, radar arrays. The Ocean is the backbone the Arctic plugs into. Space connectivity depends upon Ocean infrastructure. All are interconnected. And AI is the operating system running across all three — simultaneously enabled by and enabling the exploration and expansion.
The Technology Revolution of today enables the Global Hegemon of tomorrow.
The Technology Pillar is the primary Pillar most focus on because of its clear role in History. He who asymmetrically leads in Technology typically wields the most Power and dictates the terms:
Of course, Energy and Money are equally important. Just like the Three Spheres, The Pillars of Power are inter-dependent. The Three Spheres unsurprisingly contain all Three Pillars of Power. The Power of Three.
While there is no dedicated deep-dive on the Ocean (yet), that does not mean it is not important. It is both the most critical ‘legacy’ Sphere of the old System, and an evolving Sphere bridging to the New System. As highlighted, it holds the subsea backbone — the physical Internet, sitting on the seabed. It holds critical minerals. And it’s structure creates the legacy Chokepoints that still set the terms of trade in the old System: Hormuz, Malacca, Panama.
But it is not static. Just as Technology touches Space and the Arctic, it is transforming the Ocean realm. Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) create new ‘attack’ vectors in the depths. This is already happening, clear to those paying attention — First Attack By UUV, Ukraine’s ‘Sub Sea Baby’ Drone Blasted Russian Black Sea Kilo Submarine. But expect to see a lot more of it across all of the ‘hot-spots’ — Ukraine, Iran, Taiwan. Resilience and adaptability are key — Nature knows what it’s doing; the hegemon who best understands and incorporates this knowledge is likely to prevail.
New Spheres. New Chokepoints. Just as the Strait of Hormuz is the Chokepoint below, the Moon is the Chokepoint above — as below, so above.
Power is the game. National Security is the motif.
Control of Space = Control of Communications = Control of War = Control of Security. That chain is only as strong as its ground floor — the Arctic, with the backbone running beneath the sea. Which is why Greenland was never a bit, and why every serious Power is buying position in all three Spheres at once.
The Nation that controls the Arctic controls Space.
The Nation that controls Space controls the System.
None of this has to be a scarcity story. One asteroid is estimated to hold 10 quintillion dollars in resources. The Moon holds Helium-3. Space offers manufacturing conditions Earth physically cannot.
The New Spheres are where the next System gets built — how we distribute the ‘energy’ is up to us.
New System. New Spheres. New Opportunities.
CONTENT
Content to Dive Deeper into the insights above:
PoP: The Arctic & Its Rising Importance — the first Sphere. Svalbard, Greenland, and the routes opening outside the Western system.
PoP: Space & The New Frontier — the second. SpaceX, the Golden Dome, and the Abundance case.
The Current Beneath the Chaos — where the New Chokepoints sit inside the System phase-transition.
The Three Duties of Power: The Trump Admin Scorecard — the New Spheres scored as critical areas of focus.
Actions to Live Better:
Contextualize the Sphere, not the headline. A cut cable in the Baltic is deeply interconnected to SpaceX’s accelerated launch plan.
Follow the physical layer — cables, routes, ground stations, orbits. That is where control sits. Atoms enable bits. Over the next decade, Atoms > Bits; the pendulum is swinging.
Trade the Scarcity frame for the Abundance one. The Frontiers only look zero-sum from inside the old System.
Every thing is changing, including the Critical Spheres to focus on.
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