Inter-role conflict, role strain and role play in Chile’s relationship with Brazil

This article assesses the relationship Brazil–Chile in the economic and security cooperation fields from Chile’s vantage point. Chile plays a number of different roles, among which its most salient one is ‘global trader’. This role stretches beyond Brazil’s expectations, but it converges with the social demands of Mexico and the United States as well as with the cues of the global market. Such a salient role – alongside the ones of mediator, bridge builder, and partner of Argentina in security cooperation issues – influences Chile’s patterns of cooperation with and distance from Brazil as the regional power in South America.