Global diplomacy

Advancements in AI in the last few decades have been tremendous, and the brilliant results and acceptance rates speak for the value AI is set to offer. AI is multidimensional in its approach and hence has found its way in various sectors, domains, and segments. The role of AI is visible in almost every domain but how does AI impact international relations? On that note read the article focusing on the impact of AI on global diplomacy and international relations. 

AI and ML are now witnessing substantial attention from international relations, governments, ministries, diplomats, and policymakers. The foreign policy includes ethics, economic disruption, and security too. Foreign policy is transforming swiftly as countries are turning to algorithms to predict events that are significant to the world of business and geopolitics. There is a new and not much talked about role, AI is now being used to analyze world leaders and make predictions.

Countries such as China have adopted AI and ML around diplomacy and related government areas. China introduced an AI foreign policy toolbox and has its “New Generation Plan” to be the world leader in AI by 2030. Other countries such as Russia, Canada, US too are using AI as an instrument in the international diplomacy area. The areas such as international security, cyber-security, threat monitoring, autonomous weapon systems, monitoring of concluded agreements, military power, and warfare.

Michael Ambühl, a professor of negotiation and conflict management and former chief Swiss-EU negotiator, said recent advances in AI and machine learning mean that these technologies now have a meaningful part to play in international diplomacy, including at the Cop26 summit starting later this month and in post-Brexit deals on trade and immigration.

“These technologies are partially already used and it will be the intention to use them more,” said Ambühl. “Everything around data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, we want to see how it can be made beneficial for multilateral or bilateral diplomacy.”

The use of AI in international negotiations is at an early stage, he said, citing the use of machine learning to assess the integrity of data and detect fake news to ensure the diplomatic process has reliable foundations. In the future, these technologies could be used to identify patterns in economic data underpinning free trade deals and help standardize some aspects of negotiations.

According to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, The government of Canada has also laid the foundation for various initiatives such as digital inclusion labs that have been associated with governmental units and civil society. Canada even invested in the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy by setting up a research congregation in Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton to nourish Canada’s edge in AI. The country aims to increase engagement in the Asia Pacific around people diplomacy, geopolitics, investment, and trade.

Advancements in AI have the potential to reshape the practice of diplomacy with technologies such as image recognition and information sorting. These approaches can make diplomatic operations safer by monitoring personnel and looking for anomalies and vulnerabilities. 

In recent years neural networks and deep learning for risk assessment and prediction of events like terrorist attacks and political turmoil have shown brilliant research results.

Moreover, language processing algorithms will ease off language barriers between countries, allowing them to communicate to foreign governments and ambassadors conveniently.

Using data mining, political forecasting can be made easier leading to better understanding and predictions of political, economic, and social trends. AI could prove itself useful in negotiations, the analysis of past negotiations, and in predicting the outcome of ongoing discussions.

Artificial intelligence can also realize efforts in the direction of improving the quality of life in the nations in need by increasing productivity, health care, and other economic benefits. AI and related technologies could be of great use in cases of calamities, disasters, or other severe emergencies asking for international intervention.

So far, the usage of AI in diplomatic practices such as reporting, consular affairs, communication, and negotiations is pretty limited in India. But the potential is great and cannot be ignored, at least around public communication and consular affairs.

Automation and ML have drastically improved with the latest technological developments and hence can make bureaucratic functions streamlined and efficient.