"The Third Pathway": Middle Powers and AI Governance & Development & Respondent Reflections
As AI is increasingly recognized as a variable defining geopolitical and geo-economic importance, scholarship has begun to explore its role in International Relations and global governance. Much of the scholarly debate analyzes national or regional models of AI development centered on American, Chinese, or European models, and the technological G2 rivalry. Other regions, such as Southeast Asia, receive less scholarly attention. Where debate exists, it is placed within existing frameworks: the "expansion of US Big Tech," or the "US-China Tech Rivalry." Nguyen (2025) departs from this, arguing SEA is witnessing new localized models of AI governance creating a "third path beyond the US-China binary."
Building on Nguyen (2025), this paper researches a non-aligned model of AI development and governance — one that does not rely on or align with American or Chinese frameworks. Using Vietnam as a case study, it argues this model seeks to use AI abilities from both G2 actors, witnessed through Western Big Tech firms such as Nvidia, Meta, and Google, parallel Chinese cloud providers such as Alibaba, and domestic firms such as Viettel and FPT. This paper explores how Vietnam's policies could represent the first example of a non-aligned AI development model, asserting national sovereignty in AI governance.
*Lunch provided for registered participants.