Read the AI arms race like a comparative strategist!
A framework-driven deep dive into how the US, China, EU, and the world's rising powers are competing for AI dominance — covering chips, data, talent, regulation, and military doctrine — so you can brief, advise, and decide with genuine strategic clarity.

"Rigorous comparative analyses of the AI geoeconomic landscape are not a luxury for serious professionals — they are the baseline competence the times demand.”
— Val (Valdas) Samonis

What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Compare the official AI national strategies of the US, Canada, China, EU, UK, India, and other key actors across investment, regulation, and talent policy
- Analyze the role of state capacity, industrial policy, and military doctrine in shaping each nation's AI posture
- Evaluate the geoeconomic & geopolitical implications of semiconductor supply chains, data governance regimes, and compute concentration
- Identify strategic chokepoints — chip export controls, talent flows, standards bodies — and explain how nations weaponize them
- Apply established IR and strategy frameworks (great-power competition, techno-nationalism, regulatory capitalism) to live AI policy debates
- Produce a structured comparative assessment of a nation's AI strategy suitable for a briefing document, board presentation, or policy memo
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 26 lessons

The Strategic Logic of National AI Competition
Establishes the foundational frameworks — from IR theory to techno-nationalism — that explain why and how states treat AI as a strategic priority.
- 1.1Why AI Is a National Strategy IssueIncluded
- 1.2Frameworks for Analysis: Great-Power Competition, Techno-Nationalism, and Regulatory CapitalismIncluded
- 1.3Anatomy of a National AI StrategyIncluded
- 1.4Measuring AI Power: Indices, Proxies, and Their LimitsIncluded
Major Power Strategies: The US and China
Conducts a deep comparative analysis of the two leading AI superpowers across investment, industrial policy, military doctrine, and governance.
- 2.1The US Approach: Federal Strategy, Private-Sector Primacy, and Export ControlsIncluded
- 2.2China's AI Strategy: State Capacity, Civil-Military Fusion, and the 2030 PlanIncluded
- 2.3Competing Models of Data GovernanceIncluded
- 2.4US–China Tech Decoupling: Semiconductor Chokepoints and Supply Chain WarIncluded
- 2.5Head-to-Head Comparative Assessment: US vs. ChinaIncluded
The European, UK, and Democratic Middle-Power Strategies
Examines how the EU, UK, and allied democracies are carving out distinct AI postures — emphasizing regulation, standards, and strategic autonomy.
- 3.1The EU's Regulatory Capitalism Model: AI Act, GDPR, and Digital SovereigntyIncluded
- 3.2The UK's Post-Brexit AI Strategy: Innovation Hub or Regulatory Arbitrage?Included
- 3.3Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea: Aligned but Not IdenticalIncluded
- 3.4Standards Bodies as Battlegrounds: ISO, IEEE, ITU, and the Fight to Write the RulesIncluded
Rising and Swing-State Strategies: India, the Gulf, and the Global South
Analyzes how emerging economies and swing states are building sovereign AI capacity and navigating great-power competition without full alignment.
- 4.1India's AI Strategy: Digital Public Infrastructure, Talent Export, and Strategic AutonomyIncluded
- 4.2Gulf State AI Ambitions: Sovereign Wealth, Compute Accumulation, and Talent ImportIncluded
- 4.3Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America: Dependency, Opportunity, and Digital SovereigntyIncluded
- 4.4Swing States and Strategic Hedging: Who Holds the Deciding Votes?Included
Strategic Chokepoints: Chips, Talent, Compute, and Data
Provides a rigorous cross-cutting analysis of the specific technical and economic leverage points that nations weaponize in AI competition.
- 5.1The Semiconductor Stack: Where AI Power Is Actually MadeIncluded
- 5.2Compute Concentration: Cloud Hyperscalers, National Compute Clusters, and Access InequalityIncluded
- 5.3The Global AI Talent War: Immigration Policy, Brain Drain, and University PipelinesIncluded
- 5.4Data as a Strategic Resource: Localization Laws, Cross-Border Flows, and Surveillance AdvantageIncluded
- 5.5Military AI and Autonomous Weapons: Doctrine, Red Lines, and the Arms Control GapIncluded
Applying the Frameworks: Comparative Assessment and Strategic Foresight
Synthesizes the full course into practiced, professional output — comparative country assessments, scenario analysis, and strategic recommendations.
- 6.1Building a Comparative AI Strategy AssessmentIncluded
- 6.2Scenario Planning for the AI Geopolitical Landscape: 2025–2035Included
- 6.3Writing the Briefing Document, Policy Memo, or Board PresentationIncluded
- 6.4Capstone: Nation Assessment PresentationIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Policy analysts
Needs rigorous comparative frameworks to brief decision-makers on national AI strategies without getting lost in technical hype or geopolitical oversimplification.
Strategy consultants
Advises clients navigating export controls, supply chain exposure, and regulatory divergence — and needs the analytical architecture to do it credibly.
Academic researchers
Works at the intersection of IR, political economy, or science-and-technology studies and wants a structured, evidence-grounded map of the competitive AI landscape.
Senior executives
Makes strategic decisions affected by chip controls, data-localization laws, and shifting regulatory regimes — and needs to understand the geopolitical logic driving them.
Government & defense professionals
Works inside agencies or allied institutions where AI strategy, procurement, and military doctrine are live policy questions demanding analytical precision.
Emerging-market strategists
Advises governments or organizations in the Global South on navigating great-power AI competition without ceding digital sovereignty or strategic autonomy.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Val (Valdas) Samonis
If you work in strategy, policy, or senior leadership, you already know the feeling: AI is now in every conversation that matters — boardrooms, budget hearings, interagency meetings, client briefings — and yet most of what passes for analysis is either vendor-driven optimism or geopolitical hand-waving that collapses under the first serious question.
You are not looking for a primer on how transformers work. You are looking for the analytical architecture to understand why governments are making the choices they are making, what is actually at stake in the US–China semiconductor conflict, how the EU's regulatory strategy functions as a form of market power, and what India's digital public infrastructure bet reveals about the strategic options available to states that want autonomy without dependency. That is precisely what this school is built to deliver.
The curriculum is organized around frameworks that come from where this problem actually lives: international relations theory, political economy, and comparative industrial policy. Great-power competition, techno-nationalism, regulatory capitalism — these are not buzzwords here. They are working tools, applied against real case evidence, tested against the hard constraints of compute concentration, talent flows, and supply chain geography. Every major actor gets a serious treatment: the US model of private-sector primacy and export-control coercion, China's civil-military fusion strategy, the EU's regulatory-first approach to digital sovereignty, and the more complex hedging strategies of India, the Gulf, and the swing states whose alignment decisions will shape the next decade.
The school culminates in something you can actually use. The final unit is structured around professional deliverables — the briefing document, the policy memo, the board presentation — because rigorous analysis is only as valuable as your ability to communicate it to decision-makers. The capstone asks you to produce a structured comparative assessment of a nation of your choosing, applying the frameworks, engaging the evidence, and arriving at defensible conclusions.
I designed this school because I believe that the people who most need a clear-eyed map of this landscape — the analysts, consultants, executives, and researchers who are being asked to advise on it right now — are the least well-served by what is currently available. You deserve material that respects your intelligence and matches the seriousness of the questions you are being paid to answer.
If that is where you are, I am glad you are here. Let's get to work.
— Val (Valdas) Samonis
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- 6 modules, 26 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed
