Commentary
Democrats now have the gavel and the purse, but the executive branch still pulls the levers on the U.S. role in the world.
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James M. Acton, Dan Baer, Mark Baldassare, …
Research
The Race Worth Winning: Middle Powers in the Age of Machine Intelligence
The race where the middle powers can compete and even lead is the race to favorably adapt frontier artificial intelligence into their governments and economies.
Published on Feb 13, 2026
About the Authors
Anton Leicht
Fellow, Technology and International Affairs Program
Anton Leicht is a fellow with the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he researches the political economy of artificial intelligence.
Dean W. Ball
Dean W. Ball is a senior policy adviser for AI and emerging technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was previously a research fellow at the Mercatus Center and a nonresident senior fellow at both the Foundation for American Innovation and Fathom.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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