Britain and the Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the UK has found itself navigating a visibly fractured transatlantic alliance. Although the temperature of geopolitics may be increasingly concerning as the US and EU move in seemingly opposite directions on trade and security, the underlying power dynamic remains familiar to Britain’s policymakers. Over the last century, the UK has grown used to navigating these more powerful regional actors and its grand strategy as a middle power has been to avoid total dependence on either the EU or the US.
As an island nation-state, the UK has always been economically dependent on proximal European trade, even as the US has much greater sway over the UK in terms of defence and security. However, in recent years, the UK’s own strategic positioning has evolved from a post-Brexit Global Britain to an agenda tying defence and economic security together, in recognition of geopolitical realities.
Now, as Trump attempts to refashion the politics of global trade, the UK’s desire for an economic agreement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at its heart aims to give greater substance to its ambitious rhetoric. Building on earlier efforts, the UK hopes it can partner with the US not just to integrate AI into its defensive alliance, but to create an AI geostrategic core, not dissimilar to the dominance of Anglo-American financial capital, focused on the flow and financialisation of data.