Where will the seminar take place?

The seminar "Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición" will be held in Santiago, CHL.

What is the primary focus of the seminar?

The seminar's primary focus is to analyze CHL's foreign policy in the context of a world undergoing significant transitions, as indicated by its title.

Seminario “Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición”

Name: Seminario “Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición”
Start: 2026-01-19 00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-01-19 00:00:00+00:00
Location: Santiago

Jan 19, 2026Santiago, ChileIn-person

Registration open

The seminar "Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición" (Foreign Policy 2026: Chile in a World in Transition) is scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile. This event will bring together experts to discuss the complexities of the current international environment and its specific implications for Chile's foreign policy. The discussions are expected to cover a range of topics pertinent to a nation navigating a shifting global order. The seminar aims to provide a platform for in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities that arise from a world in transition, focusing on how Chile can adapt its diplomatic strategies and international relations to safeguard its interests and promote its values on the global stage.

Committees & topics

Topics
Chilean Foreign Policy in a Shifting Global Order · Geopolitics of a Multipolar World and Latin America's Place in It · Energy Transition and the Race for Critical Minerals · International Trade in an Age of Fragmentation · Chile and the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and Strategic Risks

Why it matters

This seminar is particularly relevant given the ongoing transformations in global power dynamics and international relations. As the world experiences significant geopolitical shifts, understanding how these changes impact individual nations, especially those in regions like South America, becomes crucial. The event offers a timely opportunity to assess CHL's strategic positioning and its capacity to respond to external pressures and opportunities.

For policymakers, academics, and practitioners in international affairs, the insights generated from this seminar can inform future policy decisions and academic research. The focus on a specific country, CHL, within the broader context of global transitions, allows for a granular examination of how national interests intersect with international trends. This localized yet globally aware perspective is essential for developing robust and adaptive foreign policy frameworks.

The discussions will likely touch upon various aspects of foreign policy, including economic diplomacy, regional cooperation, and multilateral engagement. By convening in Santiago, the seminar also underscores the importance of local perspectives in shaping global discourse, ensuring that the voices and concerns of nations like CHL are integrated into broader international analyses.

How to prepare

To prepare for discussions at the seminar, participants should consider a thorough review of contemporary international relations theories and their application to real-world scenarios. Understanding the concept of a "world in transition" requires familiarity with various geopolitical shifts, such as the rise of new powers, changes in global economic structures, and evolving security challenges. A strong grasp of these overarching themes will enable more informed contributions to the seminar's discussions.

Additionally, it would be beneficial to research CHL's current foreign policy objectives and its historical diplomatic engagements. This includes examining its relationships with key international partners and its participation in regional and global organizations. Analyzing recent foreign policy statements and initiatives from CHL will provide a solid foundation for understanding the specific challenges and opportunities the country faces in the current global climate.

Participants might also consider exploring the Model Diplomat lesson on "dynamic-analysis" to better interpret the evolving international landscape and prepare for discussions on potential future scenarios. Additionally, reviewing the Model Diplomat lesson on "engagement-strategies" could provide valuable insights into effective diplomatic approaches in a multipolar world. Understanding the nuances of "hidden-stakeholders" and conducting a "stakeholder-workshop" as outlined in Model Diplomat lessons could also offer a comprehensive framework for analyzing the various actors influencing global transitions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Chile

CHL is actively seeking to define its foreign policy in response to a changing global landscape, aiming to maintain stability and promote its national interests amidst international transitions.

Role in topic

As the host nation and the primary subject of the seminar, CHL's perspective is central. The seminar directly addresses how CHL's foreign policy must adapt to global shifts, reflecting its proactive approach to international relations and its commitment to strategic planning in a complex world.

Topics & background

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

Chilean Foreign Policy in a Shifting Global Order

Chile's modern foreign policy has been shaped by a long tradition of legalism, multilateralism, and economic openness. Since the return to democracy in 1990, successive governments have pursued an 'open regionalism' strategy, signing free trade agreements with the United States, the European Union, China, and most major Asia-Pacific economies, while anchoring the country in regional bodies such as the Pacific Alliance, Prosur, and CELAC. Chile has also cultivated a reputation as a middle power active in human rights diplomacy, Antarctic governance, and ocean policy. The Boric administration (2022-2026) attempted to articulate a 'turbo-charged' feminist and rights-based foreign policy while preserving the country's traditional commercial pragmatism. That balance has been tested by the war in Ukraine, the Gaza conflict, sharpening U.S.-China rivalry, instability in Venezuela and Haiti, and the migration crisis on the northern border. Chile's 2023 ratification of the CPTPP and its continued courtship by both Washington and Beijing over lithium and critical minerals illustrate the structural tensions ahead. Looking toward 2026, debate centers on how Chile should position itself amid great-power competition, whether to deepen 'active non-alignment,' how to coordinate Latin American responses to authoritarian regimes in the region, and how to integrate climate, migration, and critical-minerals policy into a coherent external strategy.

Key players

Geopolitics of a Multipolar World and Latin America's Place in It

The post-Cold War unipolar moment has given way to an increasingly contested international system. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the war in Gaza since October 2023, escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, and the weaponization of trade, technology, and finance have eroded the rules-based order that smaller states like Chile relied upon. The expansion of BRICS+ in 2024 and the proliferation of minilateral groupings (AUKUS, Quad, IPEF, Chip 4) signal a fragmentation of global governance into competing blocs. Latin America has largely sought to avoid hard alignment. Doctrines of 'active non-alignment,' promoted by analysts such as Jorge Heine and Carlos Ominami, argue the region should diversify partners and protect autonomy. Yet the continent is directly exposed: it is a major supplier of food, energy, and critical minerals; a destination for Chinese infrastructure investment under the Belt and Road; and a theater where Washington increasingly frames its engagement in terms of 'nearshoring' and countering Beijing. Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua complicate any common regional voice. For Chile, the geopolitical question is structural: how to defend multilateralism and international law (Ukraine, Gaza, ICC, ICJ) while preserving commercial ties with all major powers, securing sea lanes across the Pacific, and managing Antarctic and South Atlantic interests in an era of renewed great-power competition.

Key players

Energy Transition and the Race for Critical Minerals

The global energy transition, accelerated by the Paris Agreement and reinforced by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (2022), the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (2024), and China's dominance over clean-tech supply chains, has placed unprecedented demand on lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths. The International Energy Agency projects that demand for lithium could rise sixfold by 2040 under net-zero scenarios. This has turned resource-rich states into strategic actors and reopened debates about industrial policy, state participation, and environmental and Indigenous rights. Chile sits at the center of this transformation. It is the world's largest copper producer and, together with Argentina and Bolivia, forms the 'lithium triangle' that holds over half of global reserves. In 2023 the Boric government launched a National Lithium Strategy creating a public-private model led by Codelco and Enami, and in 2024 advanced partnerships with SQM and international firms. Chile also aspires to become a leading exporter of green hydrogen, leveraging Atacama solar and Magallanes wind resources, with projects backed by the EU, Germany, and Japan. The policy debate involves balancing decarbonization with just transition for coal-dependent communities (Mejillones, Coronel, Tocopilla), protecting Andean salt flats and water resources, securing value-added processing rather than raw exports, and navigating U.S.-China competition over downstream battery and EV supply chains.

Key players

International Trade in an Age of Fragmentation

The post-1995 WTO order, premised on multilateral liberalization and binding dispute settlement, is under severe strain. The U.S.-China tariff war that began in 2018, the paralysis of the WTO Appellate Body, COVID-19 supply-shock lessons, and a wave of industrial-policy subsidies (IRA, CHIPS Act, EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, Made in China 2025) have produced what the IMF and WTO describe as 'geoeconomic fragmentation.' Trade is increasingly shaped by national-security carve-outs, export controls on semiconductors and AI, carbon border adjustments (CBAM), and friend-shoring. Chile is among the world's most open economies, with trade representing roughly 60 percent of GDP and FTAs covering more than 65 percent of global GDP. Its membership in the CPTPP (in force for Chile since 2023), the modernized EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (signed 2023), the Pacific Alliance, and the DEPA digital-economy agreement gives it diversified market access. Yet rising protectionism, CBAM compliance costs for copper and steel, and pressure to align with one technology bloc all challenge the Chilean model. Key debates include how to defend multilateral rules at the WTO, how to upgrade exports from raw commodities to green and digital goods, how to negotiate with the EU on environmental conditionality, and whether to deepen integration with Mercosur and ASEAN to hedge against bloc-based fragmentation.

Key players

Chile and the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and Strategic Risks

Since the 1990s Chile has consciously projected itself as a Pacific nation, joining APEC in 1994, signing FTAs with China (2005), Korea (2003), Japan (2007), India (2006), and the broader CPTPP, and hosting APEC summits in 2004 and 2019. Asia today absorbs more than half of Chilean exports, led by copper, lithium, cherries, salmon, wine, and forestry products. The Asia-Pacific has been the principal engine of Chilean export growth for two decades. The regional environment has, however, grown more contested. U.S.-China rivalry over technology, Taiwan, and the South China Sea; the AUKUS pact and Japanese rearmament; North Korean missile activity; and tensions over data governance and digital trade all complicate engagement. China remains Chile's largest trading partner and a major investor (in electricity distribution, ports, and mining), while the United States, Japan, and Korea push competing visions for supply-chain security and digital standards. India is emerging as a new commercial frontier, and Indonesia and Vietnam as alternative Asian partners. The agenda for Chile includes upgrading the FTA with China, leveraging CPTPP and DEPA membership, securing transpacific connectivity (cables, ports, the Chancay-Valparaíso corridor competition), and articulating a coherent Indo-Pacific posture that protects autonomy while deepening economic ties.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Seminario “Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición”.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

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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

By committee

Frequently asked questions

Seminario “Política Exterior 2026: Chile en un mundo en transición”

Jan 19, 2026Santiago, ChileIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Chilean Foreign Policy in a Shifting Global Order · Geopolitics of a Multipolar World and Latin America's Place in It · Energy Transition and the Race for Critical Minerals · International Trade in an Age of Fragmentation · Chile and the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and Strategic Risks

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Chile

CHL is actively seeking to define its foreign policy in response to a changing global landscape, aiming to maintain stability and promote its national interests amidst international transitions.

Role in topic