| Abstract: | In recent decades, complex interdependence as well as domesticissues have encouraged many constituent governments of largernational polities to assert an international competence of theirown, primarily in matters touching upon their respective jurisdictions,such as trade promotion, foreign investment, employment andrights of foreign workers, environmental and energy issues,and tourism. Two forms of the resulting paradiplomacy are identified:transborder regional regimes (dominantly based on informal consociationalprocesses) and "global micro-diplomacy" which bring constituentgovernments, including those of major cities, into direct contactwith foreign national and constituent governments. Examplesof the latter include the permanent representations of U.S.states and Canadian provinces in Tokyo, Brussels, Frankfurt,and London. The international initiatives of constituent governmentsevoke various reactions from national governments, ranging fromlack of concern to positive or highly negative responses, dependingon their perception of these activities as being politicallymarginal, complementary with, redundant to, or conflicting withnational foreign policy. From these activities there emergesthe concept of a territorial state as a multivocal actor. Neithera blessing nor a curse, subna-tional presence on the internationalscene has become a fact of life in an interdependent world. |
