Where We Work
The AI Middle Way Coalition is moving on an accelerated timeline to activate a sequence of five tiers of nations by mid-2028, when Tier Five — an aspirational collaboration between the United States and China — begins. The five tiers are listed below.
Roadmap 2026 — 2028
Each tier represents a phase of coalition expansion. Tier One, the four founding nations, anchors the framework in 2026 with a culminating event in London this November. Tiers Two through Four expand the coalition through 2027 and into 2028. Tier Five — the apotheosis — sees the United States and China join as aspirational co-architects, completing the bridge between the Global South and the world's two AI superpowers.
Culminating event: London — November 2026. The Lima Declaration is signed in Johannesburg with South Africa as the African Union anchor, alongside the four other founding partners.
Tier Two activates at the start of 2027, extending the framework to Latin America's largest economy and sub-Saharan Africa's emerging AI leaders.
Bringing the framework to two of the most consequential AI players outside the US–China axis.
Tier Four consolidates the coalition through the Vatican, multilateral institutions, and additional national partners, preparing the ground for Tier Five.
Tier Five represents an aspirational collaboration between the United States and China within the AI Middle Way framework — the apex of the coalition's vision. The United States learns from China's rural AI and education models; China learns to support democratic frameworks. A shared mission to uplift the global lower middle class through structural deflation.
Global Dynamics
When the US and China achieve "co-opetition" — collaborating while competing — two-way interactions emerge with the big nations of the Global South across three tiers.
Tier One — Proof of Concept
Thailand's 800-year tradition of balancing between greater powers — from Ayutthaya's diplomacy between European empires to modern navigation between the US and China — makes it the natural home for the Middle Way Coalition. Chulalongkorn University, the nation's premier institution, provides the intellectual anchor through Professor Soraj Hongladarom's work on AI ethics and Buddhist philosophy.
Buddhist majjhimā paṭipadā (middle way) provides the conceptual foundation. This is not imported Western theory — it is indigenous philosophy applied to contemporary governance.
NBTC adopted Meaningful Broadband as national policy in 2006. Thailand has existing institutional capacity for technology governance frameworks.
Thailand's ASEAN membership, its position between Chinese and US influence spheres, and its history of diplomatic non-alignment make it credible to all parties.
Indonesia is where the theory becomes practice. The world's largest Muslim democracy, fourth-largest population, and the nation that already proved cooperative formalization works through the Gojek model. Ilham Habibie's Wantiknas framework provides interministerial coordination at the presidential level, and Sri Mulyani's fiscal reforms expanded the taxpayer base from 4.35 million to 16 million — pre-AI.
Gojek proved AI-enabled cooperative formalization at scale. 2+ million drivers voluntarily formalized. The Sri Mulyani fiscal framework is ready to be AI-enhanced.
Wantiknas (National ICT Council) under Ilham Habibie provides presidential-level interministerial coordination. Meaningful Broadband adopted 2007.
Nadiem Makarim's Merdeka Belajar reforms created the "how to learn" pedagogy. The AI Middle Way scales this to just-in-time employment pathways.
Mexico sits at the intersection of North and South America, a USMCA member that is also the gateway to 650 million Latin Americans. Its tianguis market tradition — open-air trading networks predating the Aztec empire — represents the world's most sophisticated informal economy infrastructure, ready for digital formalization.
USMCA membership gives Mexico unique leverage: the US needs Mexico's cooperation, which creates bargaining power for data sovereignty terms that other nations can emulate.
The tianguis tradition and Catholic social teaching (via media) provide indigenous frameworks for cooperative economics that predate and enrich Middle Way philosophy.
130 million people and Latin America's second-largest economy. Success in Mexico makes the case for Brazil (215M), Colombia, Argentina, and the rest of the continent.
South Africa joins the founding tier of the AI Middle Way Coalition as the African Union anchor, representing both its national government and the 55 member states of the AU. The Lima Declaration is signed in Johannesburg September 9–12, 2026, in partnership with CSIR, DCDT, the AU Commission, and the University of Pretoria. The event positions the Coalition as a civil-society activation track preceding the UK G20 2027 agenda-setting cycle, building on South Africa's 2025 G20 Cape Town AI Task Force outputs.
The African Union's 55 member states and 1.4 billion people. South Africa's institutional capacity makes it the natural bridge between continental coordination and Coalition implementation.
CSIR, DCDT, the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, NACI, HSRC, and AIISA — South Africa's AI ecosystem is rich but fragmented. The Coalition supports a coordinating spine.
South Africa held G20 chair in 2025; the UK holds it in 2027. The Johannesburg event bridges that handover and ensures the Cape Town AI Task Force gains are inherited rather than discarded.
Peru's strategic value to the coalition is concentrated in one extraordinary asset: Pope Leo XIV's dual US-Peruvian citizenship and two decades of pastoral work in Peru. The Vatican's convening power — the ability to bring nation-states to the table — transcends geopolitics in ways that no other institution can match.
Pope Leo XIV can convene conversations that no diplomat, CEO, or foundation president can. The Vatican's 2,000-year track record of institutional persistence provides credibility.
Andean ayni reciprocity — the pre-Columbian tradition of mutual aid — aligns with cooperative formalization principles and provides indigenous philosophical grounding.
Peru connects the coalition to the Andean nations (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia) and the broader Latin American solidarity tradition.
Tier Two — Expansion (2028–2030)
Coalition headquarters. Chulalongkorn University anchors the intellectual framework. Meaningful Broadband adopted as national policy in 2006.
Proof of concept. 270 million people. Wantiknas under Ilham Habibie provides presidential-level interministerial coordination.
Americas bridge. 130 million people. USMCA leverage and the tianguis tradition of cooperative trade networks.
African Union anchor. Lima Declaration signing in Johannesburg, hosted with CSIR, DCDT, the AU Commission, and the University of Pretoria. South Africa represents both its national government and the 55 member states of the African Union.
Tier One culminates with a convening event in London that closes the founding year and sets the stage for Tier Two (Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria) in 2027.
Peru participates as the Latin American Declaration host. Pope Leo XIV's dual US-Peruvian citizenship provides unique convening power across geopolitical divides.
215 million people. Latin America's largest economy. Pix instant payments already process 150M+ transactions daily, demonstrating the digital public infrastructure capacity needed for cooperative formalization at scale.
Nations, foundations, and enterprises that share the vision of a third path for AI governance are welcome.