Paradiplomacia en México: Avances y perspectivas

Abstract

The last decades of the twenty century witnessed a phenomenon contrary to the rigid position of the Nation-State in the field of international relations. The emergence of new information technologies tended to reduce the level of political and administrative control of the State over information and its citizens but, at the same time, allowed the emergence of subnational actors with participation in the international system whose interests can be managed in a manner independent of the foreign policy carried out by central governments. The actions of the subnational parties are conceptualized as paradiplomacy and emphasizes the international relations and agreements that a subnational entity can carry out to fulfill its particular objectives, that is, making use of its autonomy and concrete sovereignty formal transnational arrangements without the need for national foreign policy or the consent of central governments, thus changing the traditional guidelines of international law. The purpose of this document is to analyze the causes and results of the exercise of foreign policy that state governments have implemented in Mexico based on their new role as actors with legal capacity to interact and sign agreements internationally. The study was carried out through an analysis of official statistics regarding the number and type of agreement that the governments of the federal entities in Mexico have signed and in what way they have influenced their competitiveness. In this context, the emergence of municipal and state governments in Mexico within international relations makes it imperative to review their implications in relation to the development and recognition of the ability to act internationally, theoretically identified as paradiplomacy.