The Intersections of Technopolitics and IR: Identifying the Role of AI in Emerging Global Power Dynamics

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is significant on global power structures, especially the Sino-American rivalry due to AI’s influence on military strategies, economic competitiveness, governance, international institutions and continuously reshaping of state behavior by enhancing national security, economic strength, and geopolitical leverage. In the security domain of AI, tools such as autonomous weapons and surveillance technologies are redefining warfare, creating power disparities between AI user capable states and those lacking such capabilities. Economically, AI accelerates technological supremacy, driving trade shifts and industrial dominance. Quantum computing and other emerging technologies further intensify competition particularly between the USA and China as AI’s role is in contrast when used by both were in the U.S. democratic system it influences policy, elections, and foreign relations, and in China’s authoritarian governance it enables mass surveillance, censorship, and social control. AI also plays a role in global governance, improving decision-making in international organizations while raising concerns about transparency, and accountability.