Paradiplomacy & Quebec's Foreign Policy Aspirations

James T. McHugh, a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, has published a new article. His piece, "Paradiplomacy, Protodiplomacy and the Foreign Policy Aspirations of Quebec and Other Canadian Provinces,” appeared in the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal in May 2015. The article takes a historical and theoretical approach to the application of paradiplomacy—also known as constituent diplomacy—to foreign policy, citing examples such as Scotland, Catalonia and Quebec as “federal subunits” which “have sought to advance not only specific domestic issues (particularly of an economic and cultural nature) but international recognition of their respective identities.” Looking specifically at Quebec, which began to brand itself internationally as early as the 1960s—via its Maisons Québec program—McHugh explores the implications of paradiplomacy for both Quebec and Canada. McHugh concludes that paradiplomacy provides myriad social, economic and political opportunities that can simultaneously “benefit Canada as well as its provinces…both regionally and globally,” noting in particular Quebec’s “enthusiastic suppor[t]” that Canada participate in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as well as in other domestic and global trade objectives.

The full article is available here. 

Photo by Nancy L. Stockdale | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0