Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Sub-State Diplomacy as A Mechanism to Managing Intrastate Conflicts
Dr. Inass Abdulsada Ali
ABSTRACT:
In the 1990s, internal conflicts and civil wars increased, leading to emerging fragile and failed states. In this situation, the process of rebuilding the State on solid bases has become an urgent need for national and international security and peace. The process of state rebuilding requires first finding mechanisms to manage and resolve conflicts. Paradiplomacy was one of these mechanisms.
Some scholars see that sub-state diplomacy can negatively affect the unity and cohesion of the State because it grants external powers to sub-state units parallel to the powers of the central government, especially when its interests are in contrast with that of the center and the lack of coordination between the later and sub-state unit. However, other scholars argue that Paradiplomacy provides numerous positives to the states that consist of ethnics, sects, etc., which look forward to sharing in the power.
This paper concludes that it is helpful for states that suffer from long-term conflicts to adopt the diplomacy of sub-states to manage these conflicts for many reasons:
First, Paradiplomacy contributes to mitigating tensions and crises between population groups living in border areas by organizing the movement of individuals and trade across borders, the powers given to the regions assist in addressing contentious issues that raise such crises and disputes.
Second, accordingly, the Paradiplomacy will limit the separatist ambitions of certain border regions of a special nature. Establishing cross-border political, economic, and cultural ties meets the regions’ aspirations to play an influential role in managing the State’s foreign affairs.
keywords: Conflict Management Mechanisms, Intrastate Conflicts, Multinational Societies, Paradiplomacy, State-Building