Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence: Technology Controls and The Fragmentation of Global Order

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has become a strategic domain in which technological capability is increasingly tied to state power, economic security, and institutional influence. In parallel, the expansion of technology controls has altered the political conditions of global interdependence and intensified pressures toward fragmentation in the international order. The purpose of this article is to examine how AI-related technology controls function as geopolitical instruments that reshape access, hierarchy, and governance across the global system. The article applies a qualitative research design based on document analysis and is guided by a geopolitical order perspective that links technology control to power, dependency, and institutional restructuring. Data were drawn from policy documents, regulatory texts, official statements, and scholarly sources addressing AI governance, strategic competition, and global technological order. The analysis focuses on key dimensions including export controls, supply-chain politics, investment restrictions, regulatory authority, and differentiated state positioning within the AI ecosystem. The discussion indicates that technology controls are not limited to sectoral regulation but contribute to a broader reorganization of global order through selective inclusion, asymmetrical connectivity, and fragmented governance. The article concludes that AI geopolitics is increasingly defined by the strategic management of technological interdependence rather than by open technological globalization. Its contribution lies in connecting debates on AI governance with a broader geopolitical understanding of order formation and fragmentation.