1st Edition
Chile’s Struggles for International Status and Domestic Legitimacy Standing at the Liberal Order’s Edge
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1. Managing Chile’s international status
2. International status management and status narratives
3. Reading the status room
4. Pinochet’s external rejection and domestic power consolidation
5. Status loss and the contestation of dictatorship
6. A reliable liberal partner
7. Fifty years later: Chilean elites’ perennial status concerns
Timeline of Chilean Presidents and Ministers of Foreign Affairs, 1964–2025
Index
Biography
Cristóbal Bywaters is Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile. He previously served as Special Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile and is currently a member of the institution’s Foreign Policy Council. His research focuses on International Relations theory and Latin American foreign policies. He co-edited the book Nuevas voces de política exterior [New Foreign Policy Voices] (2021).
“A compelling and innovative account of how international status and domestic legitimacy intertwine. Bywaters offers International Relations scholars a powerful new take on status narratives in world politics – richly researched, elegantly argued, and a major contribution to both Chilean foreign policy studies and the broader field.”
- Professor Benjamin de Carvalho, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway
“This book is an essential foreign policy read.”
- Arlene B. Tickner, independent scholar
“This book masterfully traces Chile’s international projection from dictatorship to democracy through the lens of status. Drawing on rich historiographic and politological documentary sources, Bywaters reveals how foreign policy became a battleground for international prestige—an underexplored dimension until now. A vital contribution to understanding Chile’s modern history and shifting global role.”
- Professor César Ross, National History Award 2024, University of Santiago, Chile
Winner of the 2024 Shirin M. Rai Prize for the Best Dissertation in the Field of International Relations.
(Political Studies Association, UK)
"In this valuable, timely study, Bywaters [...] documents how Chile’s highly educated political elites stabilized their democracy by integrating the country into the U.S. led liberal international order."
- Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs
Winner of the 2025 Claudia Castañeda Prize for the Best Published Book.
(Political Science Association, Chile)
