Nationalism, Paradiplomacy, and Protodiplomacy

There are many different types of paradiplomacies. While virtually all paradiplomatic action seeks economic gain and opportunities for learning and information-sharing through exchanges, only a small proportion goes beyond these functionalist and materialist objectives and clearly into the political sphere. The paradiplomacies that are highly political are found in regions with significant nationalist movements. This chapter argues that paradiplomacy is a necessary consequence of nationalism. It explains how nation-building projects within states and the corresponding quest for self-determination logically lead to regional governments developing a paradiplomacy because these regional governments seek to show that their political community is different from the rest of the country and because nationalist political actors look to gain legitimacy by acting internationally, thereby favoring nationalist mobilization both against the central state and their political opponents within the region. When a regional government is actively preparing for a secession, scholars argue that paradiplomacy morphs into protodiplomacy, a much rarer phenomenon. This chapter examines these concepts in the context of a broader discussion of the links between nationalism, paradiplomacy, and protodiplomacy.