Diplo Blog
The open-source gambit: How America plans to outpace AI rivals by democratising tech
25 July 2025
On July 23, the U.S. unveiled an AI Action Plan featuring 103 recommendations focused on winning the AI race against China. Key themes include promoting open-source AI to establish global standards, reducing regulations to support tech firms, and emphasizing national security. The plan addresses labor displacement, AI biases, and cybersecurity threats, advocating for reskilling workers and maintaining tech leadership through private sector flexibility. Additionally, it aims to align U.S. allies within an AI framework while expressing skepticism toward multilateral regulations. Overall, the plan positions open-source AI as a strategic asset amid geopolitical competition.
Are democracies drifting toward psephocracy and technocracy?
25 July 2025
When politicians avoid hard choices, courts and experts step in to fill the gap. Power shifts away from voters to institutions that don’t answer to them. What does this mean for democracy’s future? Aldo Matteucci writes.
Testing the limits of peace: What the DRC-Rwanda deal reveals about mediation today
25 July 2025
The DRC–Rwanda peace accord of June 2025 marks a rare moment of successful peace diplomacy, aiming to end decades of conflict in the Great Lakes region through troop withdrawals, security coordination, and economic cooperation. While the agreement’s long-term success remains uncertain, it highlights the renewed importance of hybrid mediation models, high-profile diplomacy, and inclusive implementation in resolving modern conflicts.
Do diplomats have personal rights to protection under the VCDR that they can enforce?
17 July 2025
Do diplomats have personal rights under international law, or are all rights held by the sending state? Alan Franklin examines why diplomatic immunity often leaves individuals with ‘a right without a remedy’.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as a test case for 21st-century energy diplomacy
16 July 2025
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa’s largest hydroelectric project, showcases the complex dynamics between energy ambition, regional cooperation, and geopolitical sensitivity. Located on the Blue Nile, the major tributary of the Nile River, GERD is set to provide Ethiopia with over 5,000 MW of renewable electricity. Beyond its technical features, the dam has become […]
Military AI: Operational dangers and the regulatory void
09 July 2025
As military AI becomes operational in today’s conflicts, the lack of regulation and accountability risks turning warfare into a domain governed by opaque algorithms and unchecked escalation. Without urgent global oversight, these technologies could outpace our ability to control them, putting peace, ethics, and human lives in jeopardy.
Diplomacy is where there are no rules
09 July 2025
Diplomacy begins where there are no rules – only open-ended possibilities. Aldo Matteucci explains how real diplomacy begins: with trial-and-error, creative thinking, and turning confusion into agreement.
AI Apprenticeship for IOs · From diplomats to AI builders
06 July 2025
The AI Apprenticeship for International Organisations, developed by DiploFoundation, empowers professionals from entities like the UN, WHO, and CERN to create AI tools that enhance global cooperation. Participants learn to design AI applications tailored to their daily tasks, emphasizing governance, ethics, and practical usage. Projects such as AI assistants addressing misinformation, language support, and event navigation showcase how thoughtful AI integration can augment human expertise and improve decision-making in complex global contexts. This initiative aims to close the AI skills gap and promote responsible AI usage within international governance frameworks.
The power of self-organisation
04 July 2025
Can Wikipedia teach diplomacy a lesson? Aldo Matteucci contrasts rigid hierarchies with messy, adaptive self-organising systems, and asks which one truly gets more done.
The future of global security and why cyber diplomacy matters
03 July 2025
Cybernorms, Cyber diplomacy, Cybersecurity, Types of diplomacy
June’s G7 meeting, chaired by Canada, focused mainly on issues such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as latest conflicts, including those between Israel and Iran and Russia and Ukraine. The objective of the event in terms of cyberspace was to change strategy regarding the relevant use of these ‘new’ tools. The proposed […]
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