The DIMET–Tech Diplomacy Feedback Loop for the AI Age

Why AI requires Tech Diplomacy to understand national power as an interconnected system that evolves through technological change, international intervention, actor response, and continuous adaptation

Artificial intelligence is increasingly difficult to treat as a standalone technology issue because its development and deployment can simultaneously affect economic competitiveness, information environments, military capabilities, technological dependencies, and diplomatic relationships. Research on AI and diplomacy already places infrastructure, semiconductors, regulation, trade, security, governance, and international cooperation within the same strategic environment, suggesting that technological competition needs to be understood as part of a broader transformation of international power (Polat & Aydin, 2026; Truby et al., 2026).

For the Tech Diplomat, this transformation creates a fundamental analytical challenge because understanding the technology itself is no longer sufficient. The strategic task is to understand how technological change propagates through the wider architecture of national power, where international dependencies and trade-offs emerge, which actors control strategically…