... in the international sphere. The Mediterranean dimension illustrates the strengths and the weaknesses of such activities. Parliament of Catalonia foreign action substate government Copyright 2016 by Mediterranean Affairs, Inc. 2016 Francesc Serra is senior lecturer in international relations...

.... Stavridis: Introduction  3 role in the Mediterranean: from addressing concerns about the legitimization of multilevel governance and wider democratic control of public policy impli- cations to acting as “international moral tribunes” or as actors in parliamen- tary diplomacy tout court...

... since 2014, that the postcolonial, state- based paradigm in the Arab world is collapsing under the pressure of peo- ple power, confessional conflict, the rise of nonstate and substate actors and extremist transnational jihadism. A dominant part of conventional wisdom also spent much of the past...

... mention, albeit briefly, the increasing international role of nonnational governments in many federalized (or decentralized) EU mem- ber states. The international relations of substate governments is well docu- mented, but there is less attention paid to the role played worldwide...

..., changing the rules of international relations by adding a plethora of new actors. Nowadays there are several adjectives one can attach to diplo- macy: economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, para-­diplomacy of cities and substate regions, sports diplomacy, digital diplomacy, celebrity diplomacy...

... of the central (federal) and regional (state) governments, although weaker forms of constitutional protection could allow for the cen- tral government to control substate entity institutions or eliminate them alto- gether, although such practices are more akin to devolution or ethnofederacy than to a firm...

... place in Greece during the war, when British troops were deployed to enforce the Lebanon agreement signed by the king’s government in exile and by representatives of the communist-controlled political committee of the resistance organization EAM (National...

... and their substates. Kosovo has redeclared its “independence” for the second time in four years. Ethnic Hungarians are stretching their “autonomy” and prodding for secession in Vojvodina — or will it be “Vojvodinia?” — as former UN peace-keepers (among others) deal with cancer caused by depleted uranium in the former...

... the central governments have not enjoyed absolute control. Following the normalization of substate diplo- macy since the mid-­1990s,8 Spanish and Chinese regional and municipal governments have also been active participants, albeit with varying intensi- ties. In the case of Spain, Catalonia seems...

... themes include the nature of new security challenges, the interplay of inter- nal and external actors affecting European security at the substate, state, regional, and global levels, and the special roles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union in integrating the region...

... makers had repeatedly signaled their support for that outcome. Although the United Nations resolution authoriz- ing international governance of the province following NATO’s air assault in 1999 ostensibly confirmed that Kosovo remained part of Serbia, only the most naive observers doubted...

... in Africa China’s interest in Africa extends well beyond the oil sector to encompass other areas, including infrastructural development and winning the hearts and minds of the people and their governments. For example, in Sudan China constructed electric substations and transmission lines...

... and Development Foundation (ARAID) Senior Research Fellow, Research Unit on Global Governance and the European Union, University of Zaragoza. Previously he was head of the Euro-Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Studies Unit of the Institute of International Economic Relations in Athens, and Jean Monnet Chair...