Paradiplomacy as the product of state transformation in the era of globalisation: the case of Indonesia

Abstract

The study of international affairs has found itself increasingly intermingled with local contexts. This condition has led us to a more decentralised approach toward international relations, where more attention is given to the role of subnational units such as city and province. Numerous studies with systemic-level analyses have been dedicated to examining globalisation as a structure and its impact on the emergence of subnational governments in foreign activities, which can also be understood as paradiplomacy. However, there has been limited state-level analysis of how paradiplomacy relates to the evolving s tate role in the contemporary era. This paper attempts to fill the gap by drawing the experience of Indonesia, a unitary state and an emerging democracy, in reshaping its institutional structures to pave ways for its local governments in conducting paradiplomacy. This exploratory study uses library study to primarily explore official documents on Indonesian regional autonomy, mainly related to international cooperation. This paper asserts that the rise of paradiplomacy in Indonesia is driven by the domestication of global issues, decentralisation of power, and fragmentation of the formerly powerful central agency.