Where will the congress be held?

The congress will take place in Lima, PER.

What is the primary focus of the congress?

The congress focuses on international studies from a Peruvian perspective, examining PER's role in global affairs.

Who is organizing this event?

The Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (APEI) is organizing this national congress.

II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026)

Name: II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026)
Start: 2026-08-17T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-08-18T00:00:00Z
Location: Lima

Aug 17–18, 2026Lima, PeruIn-person

Starts in 9 daysRegistration open

The II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (APEI) is set to convene in Lima, Peru. This national congress serves as a critical forum for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to engage with contemporary issues in international relations from a Peruvian perspective. The event aims to foster academic discourse and present research that contributes to understanding Peru's role in the global arena.

Committees & topics

Topics
Debates Teóricos desde el Sur Global · Asia-Pacífico y la Competencia Hegemónica entre China y Estados Unidos · Integración, Cooperación y Multilateralismo en el Nuevo Orden Internacional · Amenazas a la Democracia y a los Derechos Humanos en el Siglo XXI · Economía, Política y Relaciones Internacionales en un Orden en Transición · Seguridad Internacional y Conflictos Armados en el Mundo · La Política Exterior Peruana y sus Desafíos en el Siglo XXI

Why it matters

This congress is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it provides a dedicated platform for the academic community in PER to present and discuss research on international studies, thereby strengthening the national intellectual infrastructure in this field. Such gatherings are vital for developing localized expertise and nuanced understandings of global dynamics, which are often overlooked in broader international forums. Secondly, the focus on PER's international relations allows for a deeper examination of its foreign policy, regional engagements, and interactions with major global powers. This introspection is crucial for PER as it navigates complex geopolitical shifts and economic challenges.

Furthermore, the congress offers an opportunity to identify emerging trends and challenges that directly impact PER. Discussions could range from economic partnerships and trade agreements to environmental diplomacy and security concerns in South America. By bringing together diverse perspectives, the event facilitates a more comprehensive analysis of these issues, potentially informing future policy decisions and academic research agendas. The insights generated from such a national congress can also contribute to a more informed public discourse on international affairs within PER.

How to prepare

For those preparing to engage with the themes of this congress, a thorough understanding of PER's foreign policy objectives and its historical engagement with international organizations and regional blocs is essential. Reviewing recent developments in South American geopolitics, including the roles of countries like BRA and CHL, will provide valuable context. Consider how PER balances its relationships with traditional partners, such as USA, with growing ties to emerging powers like CHN and IND.

Participants should also familiarize themselves with key theoretical frameworks in international relations that are particularly relevant to the Latin American context, such as dependency theory or theories of regional integration. Analyzing specific case studies of PER's diplomatic successes and challenges can offer practical insights. Engaging with the concept of “

Dynamic Analysis ” will be particularly useful for understanding the evolving nature of international relations in the region. Additionally, exploring the concept of “

Hidden Stakeholders ” can help in identifying less obvious actors and interests influencing PER's foreign policy decisions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As the host nation, PER will be the central focus, with discussions revolving around its foreign policy, regional relations, and global positioning.

Role in topic

PER is the primary subject of analysis, with scholars and practitioners examining its diplomatic strategies, economic partnerships, and contributions to international discourse.

Brazil

BRA's regional influence and economic power make it a significant, albeit sometimes competitive, partner for PER in South America.

Role in topic

BRA's role as a major regional power will likely be discussed in the context of South American integration, trade, and environmental cooperation with PER.

United States

The USA maintains a long-standing economic and security relationship with PER, influencing its foreign policy and development.

Role in topic

The nature of PER's relationship with the USA, including trade agreements, security cooperation, and diplomatic ties, will be a relevant topic of discussion.

China

CHN's growing economic presence and investment in PER and the wider Latin American region present both opportunities and challenges.

Role in topic

Discussions may explore the implications of CHN's increasing economic and political influence in PER, particularly concerning trade, infrastructure, and resource extraction.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Debates Teóricos desde el Sur Global

International Relations as a discipline emerged largely from Anglo-American and European academic traditions, with realism, liberalism and constructivism shaping the canonical debates of the twentieth century. From the 1970s onward, scholars in Latin America, Africa and Asia began to challenge this Eurocentric framing, arguing that mainstream IR theory failed to account for colonial histories, dependency relations and the structural inequalities of the world economy. Dependency theory (Prebisch, Cardoso, Dos Santos), the Latin American structuralism of ECLAC, and later post-colonial and decolonial currents (Quijano, Mignolo, Escobar) opened space for what is now broadly called Global South IR thought. In recent decades, scholars have pushed for a 'Global IR' agenda (Acharya), the recovery of non-Western thinkers, and the integration of indigenous, feminist and decolonial perspectives. Debates focus on how concepts such as sovereignty, development, security and modernity are produced and contested from peripheral positions, and how rising powers like the BRICS reshape both material and ideational hierarchies. The discussion is particularly relevant for Peru and the Andean region, where intellectual traditions on coloniality and buen vivir have informed contemporary critiques of the liberal international order. Today, the central question is whether Southern theorizing constitutes a genuine epistemic alternative or remains a corrective within a still-Western discipline. Tensions persist over institutional gatekeeping, funding, publication languages, and the risk that 'Global South' becomes a homogenizing category that obscures internal diversity and power asymmetries among Southern states themselves.

Key players

Asia-Pacífico y la Competencia Hegemónica entre China y Estados Unidos

The Asia-Pacific has become the central theater of twenty-first century great power competition. After decades in which Washington underwrote regional security through alliances with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, China's rapid economic rise, military modernization and assertive territorial claims in the South and East China Seas have produced a structural rivalry. The 2011 U.S. 'pivot to Asia,' the launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, and the trade war initiated in 2018 marked the consolidation of an openly competitive relationship spanning trade, technology, finance and security. The rivalry now encompasses semiconductor export controls, competing connectivity and development frameworks (BRI vs. PGII and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework), contested governance of artificial intelligence, and a dense web of minilateral arrangements such as AUKUS and the Quad. Flashpoints include the Taiwan Strait, where Beijing's pressure has intensified since 2022; the South China Sea, where Philippine–Chinese incidents have escalated; and the Korean Peninsula, where DPRK nuclear advances and closer Russia–DPRK ties complicate deterrence calculations. For Latin American states, including Peru—where the Chinese-financed Chancay megaport opened in late 2024—the competition is no longer distant. It shapes commodity markets, infrastructure financing, digital standards and diplomatic alignment choices, raising the question of whether middle and small powers can preserve strategic autonomy in an increasingly bipolar Pacific.

Key players

Integración, Cooperación y Multilateralismo en el Nuevo Orden Internacional

The post-1945 multilateral architecture—built around the UN, Bretton Woods institutions and the GATT/WTO system—is under unprecedented strain. The 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, paralysis in the WTO Appellate Body, recurrent vetoes in the UN Security Council, and the weaponization of interdependence through sanctions and export controls have eroded confidence in universal institutions. Simultaneously, new groupings such as the expanded BRICS+, the SCO and various minilateral coalitions are reconfiguring global cooperation. In Latin America, integration has historically oscillated between ambitious projects and political fragmentation. The Andean Community, MERCOSUR, UNASUR, the Pacific Alliance, CELAC and most recently the relaunch of UNASUR have reflected ideological cycles more than convergent national strategies. Trade agreements with the EU, China and the United States, together with infrastructure initiatives such as IIRSA and the bi-oceanic corridors, illustrate both the potential and the limits of regional cooperation in an era of overlapping memberships. The contemporary debate centers on how to reform global governance—climate finance, debt architecture, AI regulation, pandemic preparedness, UNSC composition—while sustaining cooperation amid geopolitical polarization. For middle and small states, the question is whether to bet on universal multilateralism, regional blocs, or issue-based coalitions to defend their interests.

Key players

Amenazas a la Democracia y a los Derechos Humanos en el Siglo XXI

After the post–Cold War wave of democratization, the global democratic recession that began around 2006 has deepened. Indices from Freedom House, V-Dem and IDEA report consecutive years of decline in political rights and civil liberties, with autocratization affecting both established and young democracies. Phenomena such as executive aggrandizement, judicial capture, disinformation, attacks on independent media, and the criminalization of protest have eroded liberal democratic guardrails from Hungary and Turkey to Venezuela, Nicaragua and El Salvador. In Latin America, democratic backsliding has taken varied forms: authoritarian consolidation in Venezuela and Nicaragua; the erosion of checks and balances in El Salvador's state of exception; recurrent political instability and protest repression in Peru since 2022; and assaults on electoral institutions in Brazil and elsewhere. Transnational organized crime, illicit economies and migration crises—including the displacement of more than seven million Venezuelans—compound human rights pressures across the region. Globally, new technologies present dual challenges: digital surveillance, spyware (Pegasus), AI-enabled disinformation and platform governance pose risks to civic space, while also offering tools for accountability. The inter-American and universal human rights systems face funding and political pressure, and debates over the universality of rights intensify amid competing civilizational narratives promoted by authoritarian powers.

Key players

Economía, Política y Relaciones Internacionales en un Orden en Transición

The liberal economic order constructed after 1945 and expanded after 1989 is undergoing a structural transformation. The decoupling and 'de-risking' between the United States and China, the return of industrial policy in major economies (CHIPS Act, IRA, EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, Made in China 2025), the weaponization of finance through sanctions, and persistent supply chain restructuring have eroded the hyperglobalization paradigm. Inflationary shocks following COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, together with rising sovereign debt distress in the Global South, have intensified demands for reform of the IMF, World Bank and international financial architecture. Commodity-exporting economies such as Peru face both opportunities and vulnerabilities: the energy transition has boosted demand for copper, lithium and critical minerals, while heightening exposure to Chinese demand cycles and to ESG-related trade conditionality from Europe and North America. Discussions over a global minimum corporate tax, carbon border adjustments (CBAM), and digital trade rules redefine the terms of integration into global value chains. The broader question is whether the world is moving toward a fragmented, bloc-based economy, a reformed but still interdependent system, or a hybrid order in which geoeconomic competition coexists with selective cooperation on climate, health and technology governance.

Key players

Seguridad Internacional y Conflictos Armados en el Mundo

The current decade has marked the highest level of state-based armed conflict since the end of the Cold War. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 reopened large-scale interstate war in Europe, triggering NATO enlargement to Finland and Sweden, massive Western sanctions, and a global reshuffling of energy and food markets. In the Middle East, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza, together with confrontations involving Hezbollah, the Houthis and direct Iran–Israel exchanges, have produced the most severe regional escalation in decades. Other theaters compound systemic insecurity: the civil war in Sudan, instability across the Sahel following coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the protracted crisis in Haiti, and recurrent tensions on the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Strait. Nuclear risks have risen with Russian rhetorical signaling, DPRK testing, and the collapse of arms control instruments such as the INF Treaty and the suspension of New START obligations. Non-traditional threats—cyberattacks, drone proliferation, organized crime, and climate-driven insecurity—blur the boundaries between war and peace. For Latin America, traditionally one of the world's least militarized regions, the principal security challenges are transnational: criminal governance, illicit mining, drug trafficking and the spillovers of the Venezuelan crisis. Peru's Amazonian and border regions illustrate how global insecurity dynamics intersect with local vulnerabilities.

Key players

La Política Exterior Peruana y sus Desafíos en el Siglo XXI

Peruvian foreign policy in the twenty-first century has been anchored in commercial openness, adherence to international law, and active participation in regional and multilateral forums. Since the 1990s, Peru signed free trade agreements with the United States, China, the European Union and numerous Asian partners, and became a founding member of the Pacific Alliance in 2011 and a member of the CPTPP. Maritime delimitation with Chile (ICJ ruling, 2014) and earlier border settlements with Ecuador (1998) closed long-standing territorial disputes, consolidating a foreign policy identity built around rules-based diplomacy. In the past decade, however, persistent domestic political instability—six presidents between 2016 and 2023, recurring impeachments, and weakened institutional capacity—has undermined foreign policy continuity and Peru's regional leadership. Diplomatic tensions with Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela following the December 2022 political crisis, declining presence in CELAC and the Pacific Alliance, and limited engagement with the relaunched UNASUR illustrate this drift. At the same time, Peru's role as APEC 2024 host and the inauguration of the Chancay megaport reaffirmed its Pacific vocation. Key challenges include managing the U.S.–China rivalry in a context of heavy Chinese investment in mining and infrastructure; responding to the Venezuelan migration crisis (over 1.5 million Venezuelans in Peru); strengthening Amazonian and border governance against illicit economies; advancing climate diplomacy as a megadiverse country; and rebuilding a professional diplomatic service capable of articulating long-term national interests beyond political cycles.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Delimitation Based on 2011 Census

Supreme Court Upholds Election Commission Dis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Frequently asked questions

II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026)

Aug 17–18, 2026Lima, PeruIn-person

Starts in 9 daysRegistration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Debates Teóricos desde el Sur Global · Asia-Pacífico y la Competencia Hegemónica entre China y Estados Unidos · Integración, Cooperación y Multilateralismo en el Nuevo Orden Internacional · Amenazas a la Democracia y a los Derechos Humanos en el Siglo XXI · Economía, Política y Relaciones Internacionales en un Orden en Transición · Seguridad Internacional y Conflictos Armados en el Mundo · La Política Exterior Peruana y sus Desafíos en el Siglo XXI

Why it matters

How to prepare

Dynamic Analysis ” will be particularly useful for understanding the evolving nature of international relations in the region. Additionally, exploring the concept of “

Hidden Stakeholders ” can help in identifying less obvious actors and interests influencing PER's foreign policy decisions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As the host nation, PER will be the central focus, with discussions revolving around its foreign policy, regional relations, and global positioning.

Role in topic

PER is the primary subject of analysis, with scholars and practitioners examining its diplomatic strategies, economic partnerships, and contributions to international discourse.

Brazil

BRA's regional influence and economic power make it a significant, albeit sometimes competitive, partner for PER in South America.

Role in topic

BRA's role as a major regional power will likely be discussed in the context of South American integration, trade, and environmental cooperation with PER.

United States

The USA maintains a long-standing economic and security relationship with PER, influencing its foreign policy and development.

Role in topic

The nature of PER's relationship with the USA, including trade agreements, security cooperation, and diplomatic ties, will be a relevant topic of discussion.

China

CHN's growing economic presence and investment in PER and the wider Latin American region present both opportunities and challenges.

Role in topic

Discussions may explore the implications of CHN's increasing economic and political influence in PER, particularly concerning trade, infrastructure, and resource extraction.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Debates Teóricos desde el Sur Global

Key players

Asia-Pacífico y la Competencia Hegemónica entre China y Estados Unidos

Key players

Integración, Cooperación y Multilateralismo en el Nuevo Orden Internacional

Key players

Amenazas a la Democracia y a los Derechos Humanos en el Siglo XXI

Key players

Economía, Política y Relaciones Internacionales en un Orden en Transición

Key players

Seguridad Internacional y Conflictos Armados en el Mundo

Key players

La Política Exterior Peruana y sus Desafíos en el Siglo XXI

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Delimitation Based on 2011 Census

Supreme Court Upholds Election Commission Dis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

International Conference on Internationalization and Global Perspectives in Higher Education (ICIGPHE)

V Jornadas Históricas 2026

LATAM Media Leaders Summit 2026

International Conference on Political Economy and Historical Change (ICPEHC)

FY Summit 2026

International Research Conference

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

International Conference on Internationalization and Global Perspectives in Higher Education (ICIGPHE)

V Jornadas Históricas 2026

LATAM Media Leaders Summit 2026

International Conference on Political Economy and Historical Change (ICPEHC)

FY Summit 2026

International Research Conference

Frequently asked questions