The AI Act and the Defense of the European Union's General Interest in International Anarchy: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Law and International Relations Under the Sign of Realpoltik
The AI Act and the Defense of the European Union's General Interest in International Anarchy: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Law and International Relations Under the Sign of Realpoltik

Author(s): João Tavares, António Tavares
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Economy, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, International Law, Governance, International relations/trade, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development, ICT Information and Communications Technologies, EU-Legislation
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: AI Act; Law; Realism; General Interest; International Relations
Summary/Abstract: The Regulation 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act), adopted by the European Union in 2024, represents a milestone in the regulation of disruptive technologies, with implications that transcend the domestic legal scope and extend into the sphere of International Relations. Our research seeks to analyse how the AI Act promotes the EU's general interest in an anarchic international system, where the absence of a sovereign authority has contributed to the intensification of technological competition. Through an interdisciplinary approach, which combines Law, with regard to the normative analysis of the AI Act, and International Relations, with regard to the dynamics of power and soft power, under the theoretical lens of the realist paradigm, our study aims to analyze how the AI Act serves as a strategic instrument in defending the EU's general interest in an anarchic international system. We argue that the regulation not only protects fundamental rights and promotes responsible innovation, but also strengthens the EU's technological sovereignty, normative influence, and economic competitiveness in a context of competition between great powers for disruptive technologies. We will conclude that the EU should articulate the AI Act with new multilateral initiatives, with the purpose of overcoming the limitations imposed by international anarchy, in order to seek to promote global AI governance more aligned with EU values.

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