The purpose of this paper is to apply the paradiplomacy framework in exploring the role of NGOs in promoting the issue of marginalised peoples. More specifically, it highlights the Confederation of Independent Football Association (ConIFA), an international football governing body comprising minority peoples, stateless nations, and regions which are unrecognised by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The author attempts to discuss ConIFA’s ability in voicing the issue of self-determination concerning its members, which are mainly sidelined in the mainstream international affairs. This paper discusses two questions: (1) does ConIFA qualify to be regarded as a paradiplomatic actor? If yes, in what ways? and (2) to what extent does ConIFA advocate the issue of self-determination of its members? In so doing, the researcher first studies the nature of ConIFA through its own constitution as well as examining its activities through various sources. Second, the author also utilises core concepts on paradiplomacy to seek in which category does ConIFA’s activities fall into. The findings suggest that ConIFA qualifies as a paradiplomatic actor in the sense that it has two forces: horizontal and vertical. Horizontally, it platforms its members to interact with like-minded counterparts through numerous activities. Vertically, ConIFA also possesses a comparative advantage to reach a wider audience by framing the issue through sport. However, the study also indicates that while self-determination is promoted through ConIFA, the organisation does not possess enough political capacity to facilitate a deeper advocacy, thus making its paradiplomatic activities mainly fall into the cultural category.

The sister city collaboration between Surabaya and Kitakyushu is an example of the active cooperation of local governments in Indonesia. Conceptually, this kind of cooperation is also called paradiplomacy or diplomatic activity carried out by local governments with other regions in foreign countries. This article takes a case study of the sister cities of Surabaya and Kitakyushu to then look at the institutionalization aspect as a dimension that can be seen from paradiplomacy. Using the Surabaya point of view, the institutionalization points that the writer will review in this article are (1) the formation of a special ministry or department; (2) establishment of permanent subnational offices; (3) official visits of regional authorities to foreign territories and countries; (4) participation in various international events organized by foreign actors; (5) formation and participation in multilateral global & cross-border regional networks and working groups in specific fields; and (6) regional authorization participation in international events organized by foreign entities in official delegations of the central government.

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 state 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.

The study of diplomacy has encountered a new turn when the concept of parallel diplomacy, or paradiplomacy, was introduced to the mainstream. The concept itself can be defined as the international agency of sub-national political entities. The logic behind this is that globalisation has given a channel for the local entities to further their interests amidst the prevailing state-centric international system. In the International Relations scholarship, this issue can be viewed through three lenses: realist, liberalist, and constructivist. This article will use constructivism whose idea argues that paradiplomacy contains identity-seeking undertones beneath, where sub-national entities can reimagine their positions in globalisation. The constructivist lens offers more advantage in seeing paradiplomacy beyond activities which are mainly driven by free-trade. This paper attempts to use the constructivist lens of paradiplomacy in exploring how cities can construct their identities in globalisation. There has been a quite extensive literature on constructivist perspective on paradiplomacy, yet many of them are focused on secessionist case studies instead of cities as regular sub-national units which pose no threat to their host states. This article argues that identity creation in city paradiplomacy is possible and particularly essential to cities located in developing countries seeking partnerships with the more developed regions. In doing the research, the author utilises secondary sources through the existing studies on paradiplomacy and city identity in globalisation to keep up with the current state of the art.