| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d1289048e83">Our understanding of the international and transnational history of Chile during the
Unidad Popular (UP) government has expanded considerably since the early 2010s. But
what has new research contributed to our understanding of events in Chile and Chile’s
significance in a global context? Examining the historiographical advances and questions
that have driven scholarship in recent years, this article argues that international
and transnational studies that focus attention on Chile and Chileans can offer new
perspectives on the rise and fall of the UP. Rather than reducing international histories
to an account of a select group of foreigners acting on an empty Chilean stage, these
approaches foreground local actors and processes, exploring the extent to which Chileans
were shaped by a multiplicity of interactions, invitations and inspirations across
borders. Localising the global in this way can help us understand the reasons many
within Chile conceptualised their goals, projects and actions as they did. It challenges
the idea of Chilean exceptionalism. It also undermines right-wing actors’ claims to
be acting solely within national frameworks by revealing their own entanglements in
translational networks and intellectual imports. Suggesting that we have much still
to learn, the article also highlights possible avenues for further research and reflects
on the contemporary relevance of the global in Chilean political discourse today.
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