This blog post is a contribution by Giselle Ana Sanabria.
She holds a BA in
Geography, is an MA candidate in International Relations, and is a member of
the Center for Studies on Artificial Intelligence and International Relations
(CIARI) at the Institute of International Relations, National University of La
Plata, Argentina.
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In today’s global landscape, artificial intelligence is a core technological tool and a real political and strategic actor. More than that, it is a structuring force: it reshapes the rules of the game and concentrates power in the hands of those who develop it and control it. That is why many analysts argue that understanding AI today is as important as understanding nuclear energy or oil in the twentieth century.
Algorithms may be invisible, but they are increasingly decisive. They shape power dynamics, influence decision-making, and redefine international relations. From processing massive amounts of data to anticipating social and economic behavior, AI has become a resource that gives comparative advantages to the states, companies, and organizations able to master it.
This poses a new challenge for international studies: understanding how AI governance, the regulation of its uses, and competition over its development are shaping a map of power that is as complex as, and potentially even more volatile than, the one once defined by energy resources or strategic weapons. If, in the twentieth century, control over oil shaped alliances and spheres of influence, in the twenty-first century computing power and access to massive datasets are emerging as the new key assets of global hierarchy.
This new architecture of power reveals three critical dimensions that deserve close attention.
The Geopolitics of Infrastructure:
Competition is about software, but also about the material base that makes it work. The production of advanced semiconductors and the location of hyperscale data centers are creating new geographic chokepoints. Today, a disruption in the chip supply chain in the Taiwan Strait could have a systemic impact comparable to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during past energy crises, a reality that we are starting to see again as a consequence of the war in the Middle East.
Algocracy and Legitimacy:
Today's key question is how and to what extent algorithms will be instruments of hegemony, control, and negotiation. We are moving from a diplomacy based on human deliberation toward an international “algocracy,” in which decisions on economic sanctions, border management, or responses to disinformation are delegated to systems whose internal logic is often opaque even to the states that use them, and data-based diplomacy may be biased towards Western power cultures.
Normative Colonization:
Those who lead technical innovation also gain the power to export their values through code. If AI safety and ethics standards are defined unilaterally by one power bloc, without a unified position, while the rest of the world is forced to adopt a “digital worldview” that clashes with its sovereign interests or cultural realities. We all know that AI is not neutral but serves as a vehicle for political values disguised as technical efficiency.
For that reason, the study of International Relations now requires deep technological literacy. Understanding today’s balance of power means looking not only at treaties and troop deployments, but also at network architectures, data governance protocols, and the intellectual property behind foundational models. Hegemony is no longer measured only by the ability to impose one’s will by force, but also by the ability to program the rules of the global system.
This blog aims to open a conversation about AI as a factor of power in international relations. It explores its ethical, political, and geopolitical implications, and offers tools for interpreting a world in which technological dominance increasingly translates into global influence.