China launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI) three years ago to promote its vision for cooperative global security architecture in the face of increasing geopolitical tensions. The GSI professes to offer the Global South an alternative to the U.S.-led international order and vision for global security, which China portrays as interventionist.

Although the GSI has received little attention in Latin America, the initiative continues to feature in China’s high-level communications with the region. During the May 2025 ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum, Xi Jinping invoked the GSI as the means to create a “Zone of Peace” in the Americas based on enhanced cooperation to counter terrorism, combat organized crime, promote cybersecurity, and provide disaster relief.

Join the Inter-American Dialogue’s Asia and Latin America Program on July 29, 2025, from 9 AM to 10 AM EDT for expert discussion of the GSI and its application in the Latin American region. 

Follow this event on X (formerly Twitter) at @The_Dialogue. 

OPENING REMARKS

Rebecca Bill Chavez

President & CEO, Inter-American Dialogue (@RebeccaBillChav)

SPEAKERS

Brian Fonseca

Director, Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, Florida International University (@BrianPFonseca)

Andrei Serbin Pont

Research Director, Coordinador Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (@SerbinPont)

Carla Freeman

Director, Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

Xiaoyu Pu

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Nevada (@pu_xiaoyu)

MODERATOR

MARGARET MYERS

Senior Advisor, Inter-American Dialogue (@MyersMargaret)