Paradiplomacy: Soft power in heavy shelling. New dynamics of German, Polish and Ukrainian towns paradiplomacy in Wartime Europe

The project is launched and implemented by Europa-Universität Viadrina (Frankfurt an der Oder) and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań) with the support of the German-Polisch Foundation for Science (DSWP).  The project leader, Dr Susann Worschech, is also the KIU’s scientific coordinator; the project therefore represents one of the KIU’s key research areas.

The aim of the two-year long project is to examine how Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2022 has influenced paradiplomacy and “urban foreign policy” in Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. It will analyze the effects of these developments on foreign policy and cooperation frameworks, on domestic and interstate conflicts, and on processes of European integration. The project focuses not only on the role of municipalities, cities, and local civil society as diplomatic actors, but also on the social tensions and European challenges associated with them in the context of an increasingly fragmented geopolitical landscapes. 

The role of cities and municipalities in international diplomacy—so-called paradiplomacy—has increased significantly in recent decades. While traditional foreign policy remains primarily the domain of national governments, Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine since 2022 has revealed the active participation of cities on the international stage. This “epochal shift” has produced new structures and understandings of municipal foreign policy in Germany, Poland, and Ukraine.

Today, cities are important actors in promoting international relations and dialogue at the sub-national level. In Germany, many cities have intensified cooperation with their partners in Poland and Ukraine by organizing humanitarian aid and speaking out against Russian aggression. Polish cities have redefined their external relations by supporting Ukrainian municipalities. Meanwhile, Ukrainian cities—located at the center of the conflict—are seeking, with the help of Western partners, to balance defense, reconstruction, and international cooperation.

The new geopolitical situation has significantly transformed paradiplomacy in all three countries. Cities increasingly act as mediators and bridge-builders, while conflicts and migration are shaping urban relations more strongly than before. At the same time, the intensification of partnerships may also create tensions when local and national strategies diverge.

The project addresses three specific gaps in the literature on paradiplomacy in general and town twinning in particular:

1. Discourse, action and impact gap: Apart from the narrative of Europeanisation and reconciliation, little is known about the new narratives, actions and impacts of paradiplomacy when these two themes are overshadowed by the political situation of war in Europe and the threat to European societies.
2. Social cohesion gap: Whilst peace-building optimism was part of the paradiplomacy approach, it is unclear whether a large-scale invasion has altered perceptions of ‘Western’ aid for ‘Eastern European development’ and whether peace-building remains an aspect of paradiplomacy in this specific case.
3. Political-conceptual gap: Although tentative theories regarding the practices of paradiplomacy have been formulated, there is a lack of further debate and more comprehensive research on the spectrum of social practices and the interconnections between sub-central and central foreign policy practices.