Sociotechnical “Post-shock” Imaginaries and the Militarisation of AI in the European Union : A Comparative Framing Analysis

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates how European Union (EU) policy documents and leading economic and defence media reframed artificial intelligence (AI) in response to President Donald Trump’s February 2025 NATO remarks, and what these shifts reveal about the sociotechnical imaginaries that shape the militarisation of AI in Europe. Through a comparative framing analysis of EU policy texts and elite journalism published before and after the geopolitical rupture, the study identifies a discursive transformation: from a pre-crisis imaginary centred on gradual, ethically grounded innovation to a post-crisis vision of urgent technological mobilisation. The findings demonstrate how military AI came to be framed not only as a strategic necessity but as a moral obligation in the face of perceived transatlantic insecurity. The analysis also reveals how media narratives co-produced and occasionally challenged institutional imaginaries by shifting attention from ethical rhetoric to questions of implementation and industrial readiness. Conceptually, the thesis contributes to Critical AI Studies and sociotechnical imaginaries scholarship by showing how imagined technological futures are recalibrated under conditions of geopolitical disruption. It concludes that while ethical language remains, it is increasingly rearticulated as a justification for speed and sovereignty, raising critical questions about democratic oversight and the normative trajectory of AI in European defence.