Governing AI in the military domain in a multi-order world: China, the US, and visions of the “good life”

How can we understand the persistent fragmentation in efforts to establish a coherent intergovernmental framework for governing AI in the military domain? Drawing on Flockhart's concept of “visions of the good life”, this article identifies narratives of the good life that shape and animate the respective policies on AI governance in the military domain in the US and China. The article identifies three visions in the US: the Big Tech vision, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) vision, and the liberal vision. In China, we identify two visions: the techno-nationalist vision and the human-centred vision. While some convergence may be possible between the US liberal vision and China's human-centred vision, deep tensions persist between China's techno-nationalist vision and the US Big Tech and MAGA visions. Because these visions are rooted in deeper societal foundations, they pose a more enduring obstacle to US-China cooperation on global military AI governance.