As geopolitical uncertainties and global challenges intensify, subnational actors have increasingly emerged as essential players in responding to these crises. This webinar, held in cooperation with the Paradiplomacy Scholars Forum, explores how cities and regions manage diplomacy under pressure, examining the mechanisms through which these entities function as agile and adaptive infrastructures of governance across the Global South and Global North.
By integrating a diverse range of empirical cases, such as international city networks, transatlantic relations, subnational management of global health emergencies, and climate governance in volatile borderlands, the event highlights how paradiplomatic practices are recalibrated in times of uncertainty to serve as vital tools for survival and cooperation.
Panelists
Anja P. Jakobi
Prof. Dr. Anja P. Jakobi is head of the Institute of International Relations (IIR) at the Department of the Social Sciences. Prior to joining the TU Braunschweig, she was Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London. Before that, she held multiple positions at German universities and research institutions, e.g. University of Bremen, Frankfurt, Bielefeld and also at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. Her research is focused on the research fields of International Security and International Political Economy, with a specialization on international organizations and global governance. She and her team at the institute currently analyze global crime governance and the governance of illegal markets, non-traditional security threats as well as international norms and their diffusion.
Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska
Dr. Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz (Poland), specializing in paradiplomacy, city diplomacy, and multi-level governance in international relations. Her research focuses particularly on German–Chinese relations, the international activities of cities and regions, and the evolving role of subnational actors in global governance. Joanna is the author of “Unpacking the Complexity of German Policy towards China: A Multi-Level Governance Approach” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) and co-editor of several international volumes on paradiplomacy, including “The Routledge Handbook of Paradiplomacy” (Routledge, 2026). She is actively engaged in international academic networks like the Paradiplomacy Scholars Forum, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative teaching in international studies.
Débora Prado
Débora Prado is Associate Professor at the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brazil). PhD in Political Science from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Currently Fellow at the Academy of International Affairs North Rhine-Westphalia (AIA NRW). Member of the National Institute of Science and Technology for Studies on the United States (INCT/INEU), Member of the Research Center on Gender, Race, and Difference in International Politics (NUGRAD), and Coordinator of the Study and Research Group on Subnational Diplomacy at UFU. Areas of research: Federalism, Subnational governments, Paradiplomacy, Gender and international relations.
Summar Iqbal Babar
Dr. Summar Iqbal Babar is Assistant Professor at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and Associate Fellow at AIA NRW. His work brings together International Relations, Strategic Studies, and South Asian politics, with particular expertise in India–Pakistan relations, strategic stability, and emerging security challenges. In recent years, he has developed a distinctive research agenda on translocality, subnational diplomacy, heritage, and peace infrastructures, exploring how borderlands, mobility, and informal networks can open alternative pathways to cooperation in crisis contexts. His contribution offers a particularly original South Asian perspective on paradiplomacy from below.