The traditional concern of International Relations (IR) scholarship with the interstate relations has been amended to incorporate the study of various non-state actors, including cities. While the academic discipline addressed its state-centric bias, the question arises whether the practitioners - i.e. politicians and administrative staff on the state and local levels, have followed this trend to encompass cities in their foreign policy discourses.
This study answers this question by looking at the foreign activities of the selected Taiwanese cities - Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. It analyses whether and how these cities appropriate foreign policy responsibilities previously reserved for the states in order to constitute their international actorness and at the same time, to reshape the ideational structure of the global society. It takes a social constructivist approach and examines linguistic practices of the local governments in question and of the other societal actors, who may enable or limit the cities’ international actorhood identity.
Relation:
16th International Conference Lodz East Asia Meeting (LEAM) ‘Rethinking Southeast Asia in World Politics’
