Summary

The fragmentation that characterizes International Relations (IR) at the global and Latin American levels is also present in Chile. When analyzing the development and state of the art of IR in Chile, it is clear that it has theoretical and methodological origins and influences from various other disciplines, generating different ways of understanding and practicing IR. This heterogeneity is one of IR’s main characteristics, and one of the consequences of this tendency toward fragmentation has been a limited dialogue between internationalists working in different study centers and universities as well as a lack of clear criteria for the minimum necessary requirements needed to create a community of Chilean internationalists. However, in the past decade, changes have occurred in Chile that can help to strengthen the discipline, such as the creation of new undergraduate and graduate programs, the incorporation of a new generation of academics who are questioning the role of the discipline and who are expressing openness in incorporating new topics to investigate, and various theoretical orientations and methodologies. Therefore, despite difficulties, it seems a recovery process has begun in strengthening IR as a discipline in Chile.