International Activities of Subnational Actors and Foreign Policy of the Nation State: Models of Interaction and Interpretations

Abstract

The article examines the options for the interaction of paradiplomacy of subnational units – subjects of federations and territorial autonomies – and the national foreign policy of the central governments. The author identifies three main types of interaction: parallel, conflict, synergistic. It is noted that initially the term “paradiplomacy” referred to such external relations of subnational actors of international relations, which developed separately from the foreign policy of the federal level (that is, within the first or second type). It is shown that the development of interaction between foreign activity at the national and subnational levels has led to the expansion of the concept of “paradiplomacy” and the emergence of alternative terms. The author of the article proposes the synthetic term auxiliary paradiplomacy to describe such a type of synergistic interaction between the international activity of the center and the subnational unit, when the latter acts as a tool for achieving national goals.