Introduction

The subnational governments (state governments) have become the potential actors in international politics; this phenomenon is called ‘paradiplomacy’. The term ‘paradiplomacy’ is an abbreviation of ‘parallel diplomacy’, which means that the states and their subnational governments oversee foreign engagements. The increasing integration of the economy and interdependence on trade in the early 1980s caused subnational governments and entities to practice paradiplomacy. Even though the conduct of national diplomacy remains the exclusive domain of sovereign states or the union government as principal actors, state governments play a supplementary role, especially in the federal countries. The federal countries have decentralised the conduct of their foreign policies, providing scope for their subnational units as actors to get involved in diplomatic affairs. India is a classic example that has resorted to paradiplomacy, of late, probably to expedite its economic prowess and political clout in the world. As India has integrated with the globalisation process and registered the fastest economic growth while promoting state governments to play a big role in external engagements, can it be argued that paradiplomacy in India is an off-shoot of these two processes? This book attempts to analyse the role of Indian states and cities as emerging paradiplomatic actors who have been engaged in many economic and cultural programmes in collaboration with foreign subnational governments. Given India’s current extensive engagement with the world and growing foreign interactions of Indian state governments, the practice of paradiplomacy seems to be an integral and evolving approach in its foreign policy discourse. The book attempts to study paradiplomacy as a concept and its growing practice in international relations, followed by an in-depth analysis of India’s paradiplomatic endeavours during the last few decades.