Subnational actors and the geopolitics of copper: San Juan (Argentina) between China and the United States, 2018–2024

Abstract

The global energy transition has intensified the demand for strategic resources (such as copper, placing the central Andes (Chile, Peru, and Argentina)—which hold the world's reserves—at the core of a geopolitical dispute between China and the United States). In this scenario, substate units acquire centrality as paradiplomatic actors capable of intervening in the geopolitics of these resources. This article examines how the subnational international policy of the Argentine province of San Juan, between 2018 and 2024, was conditioned by the exercise of both powers' economic diplomacy within a framework of strategic dependence. The study concludes that San Juan deepened unilateral ties with China without facing significant pressure from the United States.