Despite its ancient roots, paradiplomacy has long been ignored, largely because International Relations has traditionally adopted a state-centric view. Consequently, the systematic study of paradiplomacy within international relations is relatively new.
Paradiplomacy refers to the international activities undertaken by subnational governments, such as states, republics, provinces, municipalities, landers, and cantons, or regions in general. Subnational activities in international relations are growing rapidly. They may operate independently from, in cooperation with, or even in opposition to national policies. They may fill the void of policy leadership left by ineffectual national governments or may assist national governments by adding capacity from below.
Put differently, paradiplomacy addresses the engagement by regions in international interactions by establishing permanent or temporary contacts with external entities, both public and private, or international actors, governmental or non-governmental, state or non-state, to pursue, inter alia, economic, political and normative interests. Paradiplomacy takes the form of external self-supporting activities by regional governments, that could be complementary to, or inconsistent with the foreign policy of the central government. Paradiplomacy could either be direct or indirect. Regional governments also engage in international interactions concerning both “low politics” and “high politics” issues, though the study of paradiplomacy has developed based on low political issues, such as climate change, sustainable development, democracy, trade, culture and public paradiplomacy.
The concept of paradiplomacy differs from that of “protodiplomacy”, which describes regional initiatives, external activities, and political, economic, social, and cultural links with foreign states that carry, in one form or another, a separatist message. More specifically, protodiplomacy conveys a region’s aspirations for independence to the international arena and represents the “external” pursuit of statehood. In this sense, it has a dual character: on the one hand, it seeks to replace the diplomacy of the state to which the region currently belongs;6 on the other hand, it lays the foundation upon which the diplomacy of a future independent state will be built.
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