Latin American small states in the Belt and Road Initiative: Narrating status amidst US-China tensions
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Starting in 2017, most small states in Latin America and the Caribbean joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Near-uniform membership contrasts with variation in the Asian power’s importance to regional economies. The BRI has brought little new investment in these states; recently, participation has risked retaliation from the United States. What explains these states’ affinity for the BRI, despite heterogeneous material costs and benefits? We argue that the region’s small states have approached the BRI less for its immediate material benefits than for the salient discursive resources that it offers. Political leaders mobilise these resources to construct status narratives that justify, especially to domestic audiences, how BRI participation will improve national status. We analyse paired case studies during each of two temporal waves: Chile and Ecuador (wave 1, 2017–2019) and Honduras and Nicaragua (wave 2, 2020–2025). In addition, we consider Panama as the first Latin American signatory (wave 1) and the only country in the region to renounce BRI membership (wave 2).
Authors: Zara Albright, Diego Telias, Tom Long
Language: English
Topic: Belt and Road Initiative
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7133759507