This interview is part of a series of interviews with academics and practitioners at an early stage of their career. The interviews discuss current research and projects, as well as advice for other early career scholars.

Constanza Jorquera is an International Relations Specialist and Foreign Affairs Analyst whose work focuses on East Asian geopolitics, Chinese and Korean foreign policy, gender and international relations, and feminist foreign policy. She holds a PhD in American Studies and both a BA and MA in International Studies from the University of Santiago, Chile. She currently serves as a professor of international relations at the University of Santiago, the University of Chile, Diego Portales University, and Alberto Hurtado University. Beyond academia, she is a Counselor on the Council of Foreign Policy at the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the Permanent Forum of Foreign Policy in Chile. Her publications can be accessed here.

What (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking or encouraged you to pursue your area of research?

My journey in international studies began at my university (USACH), the first institution in Chile to offer this program at the undergraduate level. This initial spark ignited my passion for understanding the power dynamics in the international system, leading me to delve into the geopolitical and cultural dimensions of East Asia, particularly China and Korea. As a professor of international relations since 2016, I educate young people who will become future decision-makers in foreign policy. This responsibility inspires me to build synergies within multidisciplinary networks of academics, policymakers, decision-makers, diplomats, and civil society actors.

Drawing on your article on China’s geopolitical imagination with Chinese characteristics (2023), how do civilizational concepts such as Tianxia and Confucian legacies concretely influence Beijing’s current Indo-Pacific strategy?

These systems of ideas, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese Legalism, have influenced China’s approach to governance, ethics, and international relations. Western standards should not be applied to analyze and evaluate China, and this principle applies even to our understanding, as international relations scholars, of key theoretical and normative foundations, such as the Westphalian international system.

Tianxia, as an ideal type of theoretical and philosophical construction, offers elements that can be applied virtuously to address the asymmetries between China and other countries through the articulation of systematized,........

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