AI, Blockchain and The New Geopolitical Order How Digital Sovereignty is Reshaping Global Power Politics

Abstract

Today, artificial intelligence (AI), distributed-ledger technologies and their related infrastructures are becoming a major part of geopolitical competition. This conceptual and analytical investigation explores the transformation of current notions of sovereignty and state power through control of data, advanced computing, semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, digital platforms, technical standards, and payment systems. A structured qualitative documentary analysis of peer-reviewed scholarship and authoritative policy documents from 2017 to July 2026 was conducted. It puts to work three lenses of analysis: techno-realism, whereby technological capability is becoming a more central element in national power; neo-structuralist/dependency analysis, which highlights asymmetries in technological production and position of networks; and a cyber-geopolitical approach, which analyzes digital infrastructure and data governance as strategic spaces contested between various actors. The analysis suggests that digital sovereignty is most effectively defined by the ability not to be technologically autonomous, but to be able to select policy choices independently while acknowledging and dealing with inextricable inter-dependencies. This change can be seen in the United States-China technology competition, where industrial policy and semiconductor restrictions play a role, as well as in differing methods of cultivating home-grown capabilities and in the digital and data governance policies of the two countries. Blockchain, on the other hand, has not had a single political effect that is felt across the public sector: the experience of public sector suggests that the effect of blockchain is contingent on institutional design and governance. The problem is thus not lack of policies but the implementation capacity in developing countries like Pakistan. While there is a National Cyber Security Policy, a Digital Nation framework, and a national AI policy approved, there is need for greater coordination, competencies, institutional capacity, and risk-based technology governance in Pakistan. The article ends with a conclusion that in the digital age geopolitical influence is more about being able to control strategic technological dependencies and not only about having the digital technologies.