Benjamin L. Schmitt
Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
Works in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and participant in the Democracy Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis
Previously served as European energy security adviser at the U.S. Department of State
The infrastructure-damage incidents that have taken place in the Baltic Sea are fundamentally different from what we have seen on land, because they have involved everything from explosives to dragging anchors. In this way, underwater data cables, telecommunications cables, power cables and gas pipelines have been damaged.
I think the responses to such incidents have improved, but more could still be done.
Speaking of specific examples, what are the most vulnerable points in Europe’s critical infrastructure? How vulnerable are we, in fact, to malicious operations?
I would say we are no more vulnerable than before. But the vulnerabilities stem from the fact that many of these critical infrastructure facilities are spread across large areas — for example, protecting thousands of kilometers of cables at the same time is difficult.
What can be done, however, is to increase the ability to identify and hold accountable those who carry out these operations. For example, in the case of the incidents in the Gulf of Finland, there has been a clear development in which responses to these incidents have become more forceful over time.