Within the framework of the 2026 Fondecyt Regular and Postdoctoral competition results announced by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), three researchers from the Millennium Nucleus ICLAC have been selected to develop projects on global governance and China’s rise, as well as global history.
Governance and the Rise of China
The director of ICLAC and UC Political Science professor, Francisco Urdinez, was awarded a Fondecyt Regular grant for the project titled "From Economic to Institutional Displacement: Understanding China’s Transformation of Regional Governance in Latin America (2010-2025)". The study analyzes how China’s economic power has enabled the creation of alternative institutional frameworks that compete with traditional U.S.-led structures. Through an innovative quantitative index and case studies, the project seeks to understand how the international order is being redefined without the need for direct confrontation.
Rural Education and Transpacific Connections
Meanwhile, ICLAC Principal Investigator and University of Tarapacá professor Patricia Palma
was awarded a Fondecyt Regular grant to research health and education policies in rural schools in Chile’s far north (1930–1973). This work provides an essential historical perspective on the State's presence in border areas.
Complementing this line of research is the Postdoctoral project of Lucas Maubert, ICLAC postdoctoral researcher, sponsored by Patricia Palma. His study, titled "Wars, Hegemony, and Transpacific Relations", will examine the repercussions of military conflicts in the Asian Far East—from the Russo-Japanese War to the Second World War—on Chilean society and politics during the first half of the twentieth century.