Going Beyond Paradiplomacy? Adding Historical Institutionalism to Account for Regional Foreign Policy Competences

The article offers a theoretical contribution to the paradiplomacy literature, suggesting that complementing paradiplomacy concepts with institutionalist theory can account for variation in the development of foreign policy powers of sub-national entities. The argument is empirically elaborated by a historical institutionalist narrative of the development of regional foreign policy powers of the Belgian sub-national entities. The article argues that the combination of the paradiplomacy agenda with historical institutional theory delivers explanatory insights into the evolution of regional foreign relations competences.