Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a tool of statecraft, reshaping how countries project power, build alliances, and compete in the emerging technopolar order. For Türkiye, AI should no longer be only a matter of domestic innovation or economic modernization. Now it is increasingly necessary that it becomes integrated into foreign policy, functioning as a strategic instrument for regional influence, partnership-building, and soft power projection.
Over the past few years, Türkiye has expanded its technological ecosystem through a national AI strategy, defense-industry breakthroughs, smart-city initiatives, and large-scale digital governance infrastructures. At the same time, it has begun exporting not only products, such as drones or digital platforms, but technological models, positioning itself as a regional provider of digital solutions, training, and capacity-building. This marks the emergence of a new dimension in Turkish foreign policy: technological diplomacy.
