More cooperation than conflict despite no ‘Third Level’? Understanding the dynamics of paradiplomacy towards the EU in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg

Abstract

This article advances new understandings of paradiplomacy in action, by reconsidering the mobilisation towards the EU of two German Länder, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, over a 30-year period (1992–2022). Refining its traditional usage as a catch-all concept, we deploy a novel typology of layers of paradiplomatic activity, in order to unpack the inherent dynamics of substate engagement with the EU and explore the implications of paradiplomacy on intergovernmental relations in Germany. We find little difference between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in the dominant mode of interaction with the federal government resulting from paradiplomacy, the cooperative mode, though modes of interaction differ across the layers of paradiplomatic activity, ranging from more active cooperation in the policy space through to benign neglect on cross-border cooperation and on regional identity promotion.