Localizing foreign policy? Subnational governments and civil society mobilization to recognize and prevent mass-atrocities
Short description
This research project examines municipalities and regions as arenas for foreign policy issues. Foreign policy is often seen as a matter for national-level actors. However, in today's globalised world and multicultural societies, such matters are also on the agenda of municipalities and regions. This project focuses on foreign policy issues related to the recognition of genocide, the erection of genocide memorials on municipal land, and how cities and regions take stands against nuclear arms. What opportunities exist for citizens and local politicians to pursue issues that affect them but are also regarded as foreign policy? And how can municipalities and states deal with the increasingly blurred boundaries between local, domestic and foreign policy?
Background and aim
In today’s globalized world, international relations are not performed only by national governments. Municipalities and regions increasingly form their own diplomatic links and act globally on issues like climate action, trade, investments and city-branding. This has been welcomed as a “democratization of foreign policy” but also raised concerns about overlaps and conflicts between government levels. The pursuit of foreign policy goals at subnational level can generate conflicts between community groups, political parties and tiers of government – and affect inter-state relations. While a vast literature has analyzed cities and other subnational governments as foreign policy actors, less is known about the local dynamics and conflicts that arise when civil society and politicians challenge the presumed national-level monopoly of foreign policy.
The aim of this project is to analyze how foreign policy issues are pursued and navigated by civil society and political actors at the subnational government level.
It zooms in on foreign policy issues related to (a) the recognition and commemoration of genocide, and (b) opposition to nuclear arms. Both have been the focus for mobilization by social movements and a concern for local politicians. Diaspora groups have sought to erect monuments to genocides. For example, monuments have been put up or suggested in countries like Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US in memory of the 1915 genocide against Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire, the Ukrainian Holodomor 1932-33, mass-violence in Cambodia 1975-79, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and atrocities against Tamils during Sri Lanka’s 1983-2009 civil war. Attempts by peace movements and local politicians to declare their municipalities or regions nuclear free zones have a long history. Today, thousands of municipalities have taken a stand against nuclear weapons by being members of Mayors for Peace, while hundreds of cities officially support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons through ICAN Cities Appeal.
The project seeks to answer three questions:
- How and why do political and civil society actors take up issues of past and (potential) future mass-atrocities at the subnational government level?
- What conflicts arise and how are they handled?
- What are the implications for how foreign policy is understood and performed, how civil society groups can pursue foreign policy-related issues, and the future role of subnational governments in matters that both concern local citizens and belong to the foreign policy domain?
Methods and data
The project does not focus on specific countries but follows conflicts that arise when foreign policy-related issues are pursued at the subnational level in many geographical areas.
The project will first do a global mapping of subnational foreign-policy conflicts and then study 10-16 such conflicts in depth. Some conflicts involve intense civil society mobilization, dispute between local communities, within and between political parties and/or between government levels. They may also lead to legal contestations or involvement of foreign governments. In other cases, subnational foreign policy initiatives may be less contentious.
The project will trace the process of civil society and political mobilization and study the motivation of activists and local politicians and the opportunities and constraints they experience and navigate. It will also study motivations and strategizing of opponents, processes of legal contestation and reactions by national and international actors.
A broad range of sources will be used: media reports; bills, decisions and debates in subnational institutions; documentation of legal procedures; and civil society reports and campaign material. Interviews with activists, local politicians, individuals involved in court cases, national foreign policymakers and representatives of foreign governments will help to understand motivations and strategies, trace conflict dynamics and identify additional sources. The researchers will carry out interviews both online and in person.
