The State of Paradiplomacy: Sub-State Entities as the Better Representatives of Population? Towards an Analytical Framework

Paradiplomatic practices are on the rise. More and more competences shift towards substate entities and these entities seek to articulate their interests in foreign territories as well. From “twin cities”, to trade facilitation, the ratification of international treaties, and even secessionist movements, paradiplomacy can take various forms. Its motivations are consequently case-specific. Therefore, most of the existing studies focus on peculiarities, or are quite broad. This paper now seeks to find a way to cluster and categorize paradiplomatic behaviour. The categorization variables stem from the larger body of literature and shall be validated and enlarged by qualitative means of interviewing practitioners and scholars in the field.