Date Approved

2025

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Political Science

First Advisor

Ebrahim Soltani, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Shu Wang, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Barbara Patrick, Ph.D.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intertwined in nearly all aspects of civilian life and is becoming progressively embedded into global conflict in novel ways. AI’s role in cyberwarfare is altering the structure of strategic power. This paper explores how the weaponized application of AI in cyberwarfare, both in military and public use, work to benefit states with advanced AI capabilities in kinetic and non-kinetic forms while undermining those without. With the focus on superpowered states, such as the U.S., China, and Russia, and a representative non-superpower, Ukraine, the study examines the basic requirements for AI dominance: resources (financial and other), technological infrastructure and data dominance, human capital/expertise, and strategic partnerships. Through comparative analysis, it reveals how AI is not only an extension of traditional military power, but a new domain of strategic competition where code, not just by conventional force, determines advantage. This will exemplify how the states with the best advantage will be the ones that have the greatest resources. The findings suggest that in the 21st century, global power may be less defined by kinetic weapon development and more by algorithms—making AI supremacy central to future national security.

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