Building diplomatic capacity to govern frontier AI.

The Oxford AI Diplomacy Lab explores how diplomatic practice and capacity can be strengthened to address the governance challenges of frontier AI. The primary themes of this work include the structure and focus of multilateral fora, the engagement and support of officials who conduct AI-related diplomacy, key governance challenges and policy options, and the conditions under which future AI agreements may be reached.

International engagement on advanced AI lacks the capacity and support systems that more established policy fields such as nuclear security, climate, and trade built up over decades. That greater capacity shows up across areas including experienced practitioners, strong and well-connected expert and stakeholder networks, regular informal exchange, established venues for formal dialogue and negotiations, and institutional memory.

The Lab responds through direct engagement, convening, and research. It offers neutral, flexible support to governments leading diplomatic processes on AI, helping to preserve knowledge and momentum across cycles and handovers. It works with senior diplomats, foreign-affairs officials, and security practitioners through private round tables and dialogues, tailored briefings and research, and peer networks that connect officials with one another and with technical expertise. This provides context and space to consider policy options before issues reach formal negotiation. And it examines what workable international agreements on AI might look like and what would be required to reach them.