This work is a collective academic effort that aims to convey the maturity attained by the School of International Relations at the National University after fifty years of building the faculty who have shaped it and of achieving material growth. For this purpose, it positions the relationship between international theories and the application of case studies that make it possible to convey to the audience the theoretical adaptation in a small, disarmed, and peaceful country in the Global South, which at the same time constitutes an epistemic challenge when considering the events of global politics and the trends and concerns of the Global North.


In Costa Rica, our School is the only public university institution devoted to the study of international relations, and it remains the center where most of the country's professionals in this field are trained. This process has gone hand in hand with the approaches adopted in each historical moment toward different regional and global actors, not only through high-level academic and political exchanges but also through theoretical contributions that have elucidated how Costa Rica has faced various global trends, which in each period are reshaped by the geopolitical, economic, commercial, and cultural contexts.