Key takeaways

  • An effective national strategy offers the State opportunities to build its capacity, readiness and maturity in the face of technological progress.
  • The procedural guidelines outline the institutional course of action for all relevant actors and stakeholders throughout the national strategy cycle.
  • The substantive guidelines provide States and key stakeholders with an overview of technical, legal and political considerations for a national strategy in security and defence.

As innovation in AI proceeds at breakneck speed, States’ appetite for developing and adopting frameworks to govern the research, development, deployment and use of these technologies has reached unprecedented heights. As calls for governance solutions increase at both the national and international levels, the number of national strategy documents framing the development, deployment and use of these technologies has also grown across regions, with a notable increase in 2024–2026.

In response, UNIDIR launched a programme of work in 2024 to establish guidelines for developing, adopting, implementing and reviewing national strategies on AI in security and defence, along with a draft of such guidelines. Based on direct feedback from government representatives and civil society organizations, a literature review and insights collected through UNIDIR’s engagements on AI in security and defence, the project team has reviewed and revised the draft guidelines into the present version.

The revised guidelines, developed by UNIDIR’s Centre of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security, aim to anticipate, capture and dissect the key issues, considerations and needs that each State must address when developing, adopting, implementing and reviewing a national strategy on AI in security and defence.