Simon Chesterman: Global AI governance is designed by many actors, not by no one
ProfChesterman · x · 2026-10-06
NUS law professor Simon Chesterman published a review essay, "Architecture Without an Architect?", examining Matthijs Maas's Architectures of Global AI Governance.
- AI is an unusually hard governance problem: fast-moving, borderless, and shaped by actors whose resources rival states, while international responses stay fragmented, unrepresentative, and largely non-binding.
- Maas frames governance via sociotechnical change, governance disruption, and regime complexity, rejecting both technological determinism and the search for a single institutional blueprint.
- Chesterman's key critique: institutional design cannot be separated from power. The collective "we" obscures real differences among states, international institutions, and tech companies — the most consequential frontier AI decisions remain concentrated in a handful of private firms.
- His conclusion: the emerging architecture isn't "architecture without an architect" but one designed by multiple actors with different forms of power, divergent incentives, and no common plans. States and international organizations still matter enormously.
Related event: Legal Scholars Debate Who Shapes Global AI Governance(2 posts)→
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