Abstract

This article examines the political-economic agenda emerging within the border committee based in the Arica–Tacna cross-border region between Chile and Peru, understood as a multiscale and multidimensional space where disparate legal frameworks and peripheral local dynamics of global capitalism converge. Drawing on the literature on cross-border economic policy, institutional cooperation has been understood as a key factor in guiding—but also in establishing hierarchies within—territorial economic development. Through a thematic analysis of the minutes of the Chile–Peru Border Integration and Development Committee (CIDF), in dialogue with specialized cross-border literature—which has prioritized macro scales and traditional research approaches—the results reveal an uneven agenda focused on strategic areas (such as transportation and tourism), persistent issues (labor), and other marginalized issues but with broad social impact. This highlights a significant gap in the incorporation of key topics and elements into economic geography and regional economics. The article concludes by emphasizing the need to understand the socio-economic agendas and dynamics of peripheral regions from a critical cross-border perspective that integrates the inherent contradictions between politics and economics.