Paradiplomacy and cross-border relations

Abstract

This article analises paradiplomacy as a new international relations practice in a period of mature globalization characterized by the emergence of new actors and agendas of association and cooperation within the framework of regional integration blocs, groups of countries, or bilateral relations. From an approach based on the concept of actorness, the research explores the specificities of paradiplomacy, its possible interrelation with classical diplomacy, and the conditions that explain its emergence within the context of an international system in transition resulting from processes of globalization, decentralization, increasing agency of sub-national units and dynamics of transnational scope. The results of research carried out with qualitative methods of analysis on primary sources establish the diversity of paradiplomatic activities, in the dimensions of actors, spatial scales, and connections between the sub-national, state, and international levels, the ability of the state to coopt paradiplomatic procedures onto the service of national interest, and the potentialities of paradiplomacy for intra or inter-regional cooperation.