Foreign Policy at the AI Frontier
The Tsunami and the Frontier
During a visit to Academia Diplomática Andrés Bello, the diplomatic academy in Santiago Chile, in 2025, where I was teaching the next generation of foreign service officers, one trainee offered a metaphor that made the entire room fall silent. While Silicon Valley and AI experts speak of AI as “the new fire” and "AI empire," this Chilean diplomat chose a word that validated what many already sensed: AI as a tsunami.
The metaphor carried particular weight coming from a Chilean, a nation whose Pacific coastline has witnessed powerful tsunamis throughout history, where coastal town's streets are marked with evacuation route signs pointing to higher ground, constant reminders that the next one isn't a question of if, but when. Every citizen knows these waves don't just arrive; they fundamentally reshape the landscape, leaving nothing untouched.
And just as Chile knows this force of nature intimately, these future diplomats had already witnessed AI's rising waters, data centers proliferating across their territories, algorithmic systems assuming government functions, critical state decisions becoming dependent on foreign computing infrastructure, and their brightest minds departing for established AI centers, all signs of the transformation already underway. But unlike the ocean’s waves that eventually recede, this one demanded a new response: not evacuation to higher ground, but learning to swim in it, an impossible-sounding but necessary skill for any diplomat hoping to navigate the future.
What struck me most was discovering that diplomats in Washington, Nairobi, Bangkok and Brasília, and many other countries across the globe I worked in, had independently reached for similar metaphors. From the State Department to Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, career diplomats weren't describing AI as evolution or disruption, they were reaching for language that captured something unstoppable and transformative, a phenomenon that changes everything in its path, demanding not whether we adapt, but how quickly.
THEMES AND CHAPTERS
This book traces the intersections between artificial intelligence and foreign policy, examining how AI is simultaneously a subject of diplomatic negotiation, a tool for conducting international relations, and a force reshaping the global order. Numerous topics at the intersection of artificial intelligence and foreign policy might have found their place in these pages. However, this book has been shaped by specific encounters arising from a decade of my work and projects with embassies, consulates, foreign ministries, and partners across industry, civil society, and academia. It reflects my core conviction: that AI can and must serve to sustain and strengthen peace, not to wage war.
01
PROGRESS AI and the Transformation of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
The Progress section examines how transformative technologies—from railways and telegraphs to radio and the internet—have repeatedly reshaped diplomacy, revealing patterns that illuminate AI's current revolution. It traces the rise of tech diplomacy as a new field of statecraft, from Denmark's pioneering tech ambassador in 2017 to Global South nations like Kenya and Brazil reshaping the field with development-centered approaches. Finally, it confronts a startling frontier: AI systems evolving from political novelty to actual government officials, culminating in Albania's 2025 appointment of an AI as a cabinet minister—raising urgent questions about a world where diplomatic counterparts may be algorithms.
02
POWER AI and Geopolitical Competition, Security, and Control
The Power section examines how artificial intelligence has become the defining arena of geopolitical competition—a new arms race where control over semiconductors, data centers, and talent determines global dominance. It explores how Big Tech corporations have evolved into quasi-sovereign actors, while the Global South offers alternative visions like the African Union's "Ubuntu AI" and India's "AI for All." Finally, it confronts the most profound disruption to global security since nuclear weapons: lethal autonomous systems deployed from Ukraine to Gaza, AI integration into nuclear command, and algorithmic disinformation sophisticated enough to cancel elections.
03
PEACE AI and Crisis Management, Peacebuilding, and Governance
The Peace section explores how AI is transforming crisis management, peacebuilding, and the daily practice of diplomacy—from early warning systems that can forecast conflicts months in advance, to digital dialogues enabling citizens in Yemen and Libya to contribute to peace processes, to satellites detecting war crimes in real-time. It traces AI's evolution from a topic diplomats studied to a tool they now use daily across foreign ministries worldwide, while confronting the ethical challenges of algorithmic bias, eroding human control, and whether governance can keep pace with technology evolving at the speed of silicon.