Localizing foreign policy? Subnational governments and civil society mobilization to recognize and prevent mass-atrocities

This project analyses how foreign policy issues are pursued and navigated by political and civil society actors at municipal and other subnational government levels. While foreign policy is typically formulated and enacted by national governments, it sometimes ends up on the agenda of subnational governments. The study focuses on past and future mass-atrocities and investigates how diaspora groups and politicians pursue genocide recognition at regional level or attempt to establish genocide monuments on municipal land, and how cities and regions take stands against nuclear arms.

Using a qualitative, multi-sited approach, it maps the contestations that arise in the political and legal spheres, the involvement of foreign states and the implications for community relations and national foreign policy.

Earlier research has investigated how municipalities and regions forge diplomatic relations and act globally; far less is known of subnational governments as an arena for foreign policy issues. What is at stake is the ability of citizens and local politicians to engage in issues that matter to them but that are also seen as “foreign policy” – as well as tricky questions of how municipalities and states should handle the blurred lines between domestic and foreign policy and the implications for national security and interstate relations.