Paradiplomacy and the State of the Nation A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FRANCESCA DICKSON In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff School of Law and Politics Cardiff University Submitted for examination: 2017 DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed (candidate) F. Dickson Date 26/9/17 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Signed (candidate) F. Dickson Date 26/9/17 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated, and the thesis has not been edited by a third party beyond what is permitted by Cardiff University’s Policy on the Use of Third Party Editors by Research Degree Students. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed (candidate) F. Dickson Date 26/9/17 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed (candidate) F. Dickson Date 26/9/17 STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed (candidate) F. Dickson Date 26/9/17 ii Acknowledgments This research was conducted with the generous backing of a Cardiff University President’s Scholarship, along with the kind support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to conduct field research in Bavaria. The thesis could not have been produced without the continuous encouragement and unwavering support (including throughout two year-long periods of maternity leave) of Cardiff University’s exceptional Wales Governance Centre and each of my colleagues there, in particular my good friend Manon George. It was an unconventional process, mostly conducted part-time from a farm in Herefordshire’s Black Mountains, amongst the day-to-day realities of a rural tourism business and during the nap- times of two babies; the understanding of all involved at Cardiff University, the School of Law and Politics and the Wales Governance Centre was crucial. Specific thanks are owed to Dr. Christian Beuger of Cardiff University and all the participants in our co-convened workshop on ‘the Monsters of Diplomacy’ in 2014 for their help in refining my thoughts on the international space that sub-state governments occupy. I also thank Dr. Fiona McConnell of Oxford University and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a piece of work which has gone on to form the basis of Part One of this thesis. In Scotland, I am especially grateful to Dr. Andrew Neal from The University of Edinburgh for selecting me as a postgraduate research participant in his ESRC-sponsored seminar series on Security in Scotland, and for the exposure this allowed me to the Scottish policy context. This was of particular value given the highly sensitive nature of this issue area in Scotland during the time that this research was conducted. I owe thanks to Professor Paul Behrens from Edinburgh University’s School of Law for convening the conference and editing the subsequent book ‘Diplomatic Law in a New Millennium’, for facilitating my attendance at the conference with my 8-week old son, and for his helpful comments on my work on this topic, which forms the basis of Chapter Three of this thesis. In Germany, my thanks to Professor Arthur Benz of Darmstadt University and his departmental colleagues for helping to clarify and direct my research in Bavaria. Thanks also to Professor Christopher Daase and his colleagues at the Goethe University in Frankfurt for their workshop on performing agency in international politics, which provided a particularly useful sounding-board for my early thoughts on paradiplomacy and performativity. My biggest debt of gratitude is owed to my PhD supervisor, Professor Richard Wyn Jones. This is not only for the many detailed comments on the thesis itself and the unparalleled professional support and guidance he has offered, but also for the broader research culture that he has cultivated at the Wales Governance Centre which, amongst many other things, allowed me a high degree of access to the Welsh policy context. My thanks to all those busy individuals who participated in the project, in particular to those who generously granted me interviews and who spoke with much candour and clarity. My last thanks are to my husband Ed and our children for their patience, and to the rest of my family for their many hours of willing childcare! iii Abstract Part of a new cohort of diplomatic actors, sub-state governments represent a particularly complex challenge for our understanding of international relations. These actors are both territorially constituted and governmental; they look and sound very similar to states. Crucially, however, they are not states at all. When paradiplomatic relations are conducted on the part of sub-state governments with a strong regional identity, in particular ‘stateless nations’, there can sometimes be challenge – implicit or explicit – to the authority of the state to speak for, or represent, its people. This thesis takes three such stateless nations: Wales, Scotland and Bavaria, and analyses their paradiplomatic activities. The unique political context in each of these case studies is used as a frame within which to understand and interpret both the motivations and implications of such activities. Using a conceptual toolkit less familiar to traditional paradiplomatic analysis, including sovereignty games, performativity and mimicry, the study explores the ways in which sub-state governments acquire international agency, and the extent to which this agency is contested by other actors. Despite the range in political ambitions in each of the stateless nations considered, the paradiplomatic activities they conducted were often remarkably similar. What differed, however, was the way that these activities were interpreted, depending on the political context and the tenor of inter-governmental relations within the state. The paradox of paradiplomacy is that in many ways it remains unremarkable in its day-to-day practices. Yet, at other times, sub-state governments use their international relationships to make important claims about their status and position within their state, the currency of exchanges becoming that rarefied concept: sovereignty. Using a marginal site of international relations such as paradiplomacy, this thesis explores the heterogeneity of the field and the variety of relationships that exist and persist within it. iv Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Part 1: The Paradox of Paradiplomacy ....................................................................................... 15 Chapter One: Literature Review ................................................................................................. 16 Paradiplomacy: Structures and Opportunities ..................................................................................... 19 I. Globalisation ........................................................................................................................... 19 II. The European Union and Regionalism .................................................................................... 20 III. Devolution and Decentralisation ............................................................................................. 22 IV. Lecours 2002: Opportunity Structures ..................................................................................... 24 The Agency of Sub-state governments ................................................................................................ 27 I. Stateless Nations ..................................................................................................................... 28 II. The ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ ......................................................................................................... 32 III. Paradiplomacy, or Multi-Level Governance? ........................................................................... 34 The Significance of Paradiplomacy: Conceptualising Sub-state Actorness .......................................... 38 I. The International Arena .......................................................................................................... 39 II. The Domestic Arena ................................................................................................................ 40 Theoretical Frameworks ....................................................................................................................... 41 I. Traditional Comparative Politics and IR Theory: A Bridgeable Divide? ................................... 42 II. The absence of IR ..................................................................................................................... 44 Conclusion: The state of the Literature ................................................................................................ 47 Chapter