Artificial Intelligence and the New Cold War: A Neo-Classical Realist Analysis of US-China Technological Competition

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game-changing technology that holds the potential for a wide range of implications for economic competitiveness, military modernization, and geopolitical influence. Many scholars have called the current great power competition a “New Cold War” due to the competition between the United States and China in the field of artificial intelligence. This analysis investigates the theoretical implications AI plays in the strategic rivalry between Washington and Beijing, using a Neo-Classical Realist lens. The study adopts a qualitative research approach using secondary sources and examines the international security implications of both country's AI strategies, as well as their implications for global governance. The results indicate that AI is becoming an integral part of the national power and a focal point of geopolitical rivalry. The two countries' domestic political and institutional landscape influences the different ways they approach the development of AI, while systemic pressures push both towards technological supremacy. The article concludes that the competition between the United States and China represents a key element in the development of a technologically competitive international order, marked by strategic competition, selective technological decoupling and heightened international security issues.