Cities as Diplomatic Actors: Paradiplomacy, Democratic Governance and European Integration Under Geopolitical Stress

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has profoundly transformed Europe’s geopolitical environment, challenging established governance arrangements and testing the resilience and adaptability of democratic institutions. While national governments remain central to crisis diplomacy, the war has simultaneously highlighted the growing importance of cities and municipalities as political and diplomatic actors. This panel examines how paradiplomacy is reshaping democratic governance and European integration in a period of geopolitical uncertainty.
The war has generated new forms of political action below the state level. Cities have become humanitarian first responders, coordinators of refugee support, actors in reconstruction and international advocacy, and important intermediaries between local communities and national, European and international institutions. Municipalities have intensified transnational partnerships and mobilised external networks in response to the war, often developing initiatives that complement, translate or occasionally challenge national and EU-level policies.
The panel asks what these developments reveal about the transformation of democratic governance in an increasingly uncertain global system. Do cities represent emerging sites of democratic resilience and political innovation? How does the growing involvement of local governments in international affairs affect accountability and the distribution of political authority? Under what conditions can municipal diplomacy strengthen European solidarity and institutional resilience, and when can it generate tensions between local, national and European priorities? More broadly, does the expansion of paradiplomacy signal a transformation of the traditional state-centred model of international governance?
Drawing on that, the panel conceptualises the war not only as a geopolitical crisis but also as a catalyst for institutional adaptation and the emergence of new forms of multilevel governance. It contributes to debates on uncertain democracies by showing how non-state actors increasingly participate in addressing major international challenges and by examining the opportunities and accountability dilemmas created by this redistribution of political agency.
The panel also explores how wartime paradiplomacy produces new forms of Europeanization beyond the classical frameworks of EU enlargement and integration.