For compact, isometrically embedded Riemannian manifolds $N hookrightarrow mathbb {R}^L$, we introduce a fourth-order version of the wave maps equation. By energy estimates, we prove an a priori estimate for smooth local solutions in the energy subcritical dimension $n = 1$, $2$. The estimate excludes blow-up of a Sobolev norm in finite existence times. In particular, combining this with recent work of local well-posedness of the Cauchy problem, it follows that for smooth initial data with compact support, there exists a (smooth) unique global solution in dimension $n=1$, $2$. We also give a proof of the uniqueness of solutions that are bounded in these Sobolev norms.
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