The relevance of the Latin American region in the dynamics of the world system is undeniable. On the contrary, it has become even more evident in a context of trade wars between hegemons, which had repercussions in a scenario of multiple global crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The territories of our region, rich in strategic natural resources - common goods - are disputed by the great powers from different scenarios, which encompass the field of diplomacy and even reach violent solutions such as military coups, both with the same objective: the possession of natural riches for the reproduction of capitalism.

In this context, political struggle and state dispute become central, since, ultimately, it is from these spaces that it is possible to influence economic and productive policies and transform social dynamics and the very institutions responsible for the reproduction of social life.

After the first cycle of progressive governments in Latin America, a critical assessment is needed to identify the social and political achievements of our countries, which prioritized reducing inequality and combating poverty. Crucially, this assessment must also help us pinpoint the outstanding issues and challenges that the second wave of progressive governments in Latin America might face. In particular, this assessment will require analyzing any errors and omissions that may have occurred.

It is also necessary to study the new dynamics of regional integration based on the leading role of regional spaces such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States CELAC (2012), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples-ALBA and the deepening of existing processes, such as the Union of South American Nations-UNASUR (2008).

Latin America's participation in the BRICS, through Brazil, which brings together five emerging powers—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—and which boasts a development banking system with capital exceeding $600 billion (combining the available capital of the BRICS Bank and the Asian Development Bank), is redefining the dynamics of the global economy. New geopolitical alignments are emerging, with China and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) playing a central role.

However, in the second decade of the 21st century, we are experiencing a period of rising right-wing and far-right movements, which presents challenges to regional integration and new tensions at the local, national, and regional levels. The global conservative strategy reached its peak in November 2019 in Bolivia, with the coup against the government of President Evo Morales. Although this coup was overturned by popular forces, it has not been entirely dismantled, and destabilization strategies against the new government continue. Similar strategies are being employed in Peru against the government of teachers' union leader Pedro Castillo.

On the other hand, the election of a progressive government in Mexico with AMLO, in Argentina with Alberto Fernández, in Chile with Gabriel Boric and recently in Colombia with Gustavo Petro, paints a political map that opens up great possibilities for regional integration processes.

At a historical moment like this, it is necessary to deepen a broad and systematic reflection on the new geopolitical reconfigurations of the world system, on the dynamics of the world and regional economy, and on the challenges of regional integration projects.

Today, in a post-pandemic scenario, the formulation of public policies and planning linked to academic training and the social sciences is more urgent than ever. Therefore, we consider the continuation of a Working Group on this issue within CLACSO to be extremely timely, as it will allow for the creation of a space for collective reflection and a robust network of researchers working on this topic in the region, with increasing international collaboration.

As from its inception, this Working Group aims to promote an interdisciplinary debate on the geopolitical dimension of regional integration processes, particularly in the region, within the context of the main conflicting and converging economic and political interests in the world system and the strategies articulated to these interests.

In addition to analyzing the aforementioned topics, such as the dispute over territories and natural resources, as well as the impact of these processes on local populations, social movements, governments, national sovereignties, and public policies, we will analyze other topics such as the reconfiguration of the world economy and the international financial system; the new dynamics of South-South and North-South relations in the context of a multipolar system; the spirit of the Bandung Conference (1955) and the emergence of a new world order; hegemonic strategies and militarization processes; and the threats, opportunities, and challenges of regional integration processes.

When we analyze the power relations that are determining world politics, now situated in this third decade of the present 21st century, it is evident that our era is marked by the complex global geopolitical reordering underway, a product of the increasingly pronounced decline of the United States as hegemon of the liberal capitalist order of the modern world system.

As has been rightly pointed out, the short twentieth century, that is, the seventy years between the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, can be considered the century of American power on the international stage (Hobsbawm, 2012). But, more specifically, it was after the end of the Second World War that the North's megapower—sustained by the overwhelming military and economic supremacy with which it emerged from that conflict—imposed its hegemony and shaped the postwar international order. And although, by the end of the Cold War (1991), important theorists, both critical (Wallerstein) and mainstream (Kennedy), had been arguing that, since the 1970s, the US had shown clear signs of decline in its hegemonic power, the American power establishment experienced a kind of optimistic euphoria that led them to consider that the 21st century would also be an American century, and that global power would indisputably be unipolar based on its uncontestable military might. But the truth is that this euphoria was short-lived, and by the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, and especially after the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis (where the US and its Western and OECD allies, unable to revive the global economy on their own, had to create the G20, bringing together China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, among others, to stabilize the global economy), there was a growing concern and fear regarding a China that, by 2011, had established itself as the world's second-largest economic and military power. Furthermore, China has demonstrated an impressive rate of growth in all the main areas that define the power of a hegemon (economic, infrastructural, and technological), which is currently leading to a growing debate in mainstream academia about the specific moment when China will have completely surpassed the US in all these areas of power. But it's not just China; so-called emerging powers, such as India and other members of the BRICS, or Turkey, among other countries, are also growing significantly and demanding to participate in the formation of a new post-American hegemony, multipolar global order.

In summary, following Wallerstein (2010), we can argue that we are in a period of transition, marked by the decline of a hegemonic power and the rise of new powers that challenge it. In this sense, it is a period (which may last several decades) characterized by complex conflicts and struggles, as well as by great uncertainty in the international order.

And precisely at this historic moment, one of transition and change, of enormous challenges but also of opportunities, it is necessary, from our Latin American region, to deepen a broad and systematic reflection on the new geopolitical reconfigurations of the world system. This implies analyzing the dynamics of the global and regional economy and the challenges facing regional integration projects. Integration is becoming increasingly urgent in the face of the ongoing multipolar realignment, where the only thing that is clear, in these uncertain times, is that the declining hegemon resists and will resist in every way possible relinquishing its pedestal of power.