Shaping Global Affairs
The 2025 AIA NRW Summer Academy explores the emerging field of subnational diplomacy. The goal of this event is bringing together leading experts in the field to explore which potential subnational diplomacy holds to build and shape international politics in times of multi-crises. During three days packed with panel discussions,interactive workshops and social events, the Summer Academy provides an exchange platform hosting diplomats, academics and practitioners in the field to reflect on the relevance of subnational diplomacy and identify best practices.
Among the participating experts, the Summer Academy hosts representatives of European and US-American cities, eminent researchers of paradiplomacy, diplomats from many different countries of origin, and research fellows at the AIA NRW. Focusing on key issues like climate change and sustainability, democracy promotion and civil society collaboration, the participating experts shed light onto challenges and promises of subnational diplomacy. They debate crucial questions such as how to reconcile diplomatic practices with subnational diplomacy efforts, what role to play for cities, and how to make subnational diplomacy processes equitable.
The different panels and workshops will focus on city diplomacy, science diplomacy, youth and religious groups of actors, and many other current processes. Special attention will be paid to German-US relations, German-Chinese relations and to case studies from Europe, South Asia, South America and Africa. The attendance of mayors and city representatives from regions in the US undergoing massive structural transformation, similar to cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, and from a variety of European countries with their own trajectories will enrich the discussions and underlines the importance of engaging with para- and subnational diplomacy.
AIA NRW has initiated this high-level debate to bring together stakeholders and influential voices in the emerging field of subnational diplomacy. To this end, the Academy collaborates with some of the most central institutions in the field, including the German Marshall Fund, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP Berlin) the Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) as well as ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.