DOI: 10.53443/anadoluibfd.1850103 ISSN: 2687-184X

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A TECHNO-STRATEGIC DOMAIN: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF THINK TANKS ON US AND EUROPEAN AI POLICIES

Yusuf Fidan
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This study examines how structural, financial, and operational differences between American and European think tanks shape the artificial intelligence (AI) policies each ecosystem helps to produce. The core argument is that the competitive, advocacy-focused American think tank ecosystem, funded by private sector and philanthropy, fosters AI policies centered on national security and technological leadership against China. Conversely, European think-tank institutions, characterized by state funding and consensus-oriented structures, prioritize ethical frameworks, digital sovereignty, and trustworthy AI development. Drawing on Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism and Haas’s concept of epistemic communities, the study treats think-tank influence as a matter of discursive register and epistemic cohesion rather than mere visibility, and applies this lens through a systematic document and discourse analysis of prominent think tanks including RAND Corporation, Brookings Institution, CSIS, Heritage Foundation, Bruegel, Chatham House, SWP, and HIIG. This research reveals that US institutions frame AI as a zero-sum geopolitical competition and speak largely to public-political audiences across an ideationally divided field, while European counterparts, operating as a more cohesive expert community addressed to officials, view it as a domain for projecting normative power globally. These disparities reflect fundamental value systems governing AI policy and highlight both obstacles to and potential areas for transatlantic cooperation.

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