Between Cooperation and Conflict: Strategies of Regional Mobilization towards the EU

This timely book presents conclusive new evidence on paradiplomacy in contemporary Europe, challenging mainstream understanding of how substate actors engage with the European Union (EU).

Drawing on global scholarly expertise, and in a constructive dialogue with International Relations, Federal and EU Integration Studies, and Comparative politics, it reveals how political and policy engagement with the EU operate through multiple layers, influencing both substate and state behavior in today's complex international order.

The volume establishes a fresh framework for understanding paradiplomacy, enriched by examining the domestic impact of independent substate activism on European policy. Through detailed analysis, it demonstrates how substate actors substantively influence the EU agenda, consequently reframing state activism and leadership within formal decision-making spaces. Breaking new ground, the collection examines not only powerful European substate actors like Catalonia, Bavaria, and Scotland, but also incorporates perspectives from non-European entities such as California and Illinois.

Accessible, meticulously researched, and expertly presented, this volume is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of real-world paradiplomacy in our time.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance.

Sandrina Antunes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal, and a Scientific Fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She is an integrated researcher at the Research Centre in Political Science (CICP). Her research interests include regionalism, nationalism, and sub-state mobilization in the EU, with a particular focus on the evolving dynamics of paradiplomacy, Europeanization, and lobbying activities within EU governance structures.

Noé Cornago is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain, and CPD Research Fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy (2023–25), USA. His research is focused on the contemporary transformations of diplomacy and more specifically in the evolving co-production of domestic and global political order.

Carolyn Rowe is Reader in Politics and Co-Directs the Aston Centre for Europe, Aston University, UK. Carolyn has expertise in the analysis of territorial politics in the EU, German federalism and devolution in the UK. She has provided analysis on the role of Brexit, devolved governance and the role of the German Länder in the EU to a number of external organizations, including several EU institutions, the Scottish Parliament, the UK Shadow Europe team, CIPFA and a large manufacturing association.

Rachel Minto is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University, UK, where she is also a member of the Wales Governance Centre. She specializes in EU governance, gender equality, and territorial politics. Her current research examines post-Brexit EU–UK territorial relationships and their implications for UK governance. In particular, she explores multi-level governance, Europeanization, and de-Europeanization across the different territories of the UK.