Swedish Paradiplomacy in Action: The Brussel’s Edition

Sammanfattning: This research seeks to contribute to the current gap between diplomatic theory and practice. By exploring how applicable the essential elements of diplomacy are to the Swedish regional representation offices and their policy advocacy in Brussels, the research serves a dual purpose. Firstly, to contribute to fill the vast gap between diplomatic theory and practice, and secondly, to in parallel paint an empirical picture of variation in representation and policy advocacy between the Swedish offices. By drawing on the previous literature on the essential elements of diplomacy and through extensive theoretical retrieval, six categories on expected variation are created. These categories are operationalized through qualitative interviews with the nine managing directors/officials of the Swedish regional offices in Brussels. In total, the nine offices represent all 20 Swedish regions. The main findings of the research include that the essential elements of diplomacy are indeed to high extent applicable to the Swedish regional representation offices. The findings further conclude that it is possible to draw the inference that there is a variation between the diplomatic and political realm. The variation is however not as salient as expected but shines through in relation to the category on precision of instructions, where the most salient variation between the diplomatic and political realm lies in the precision of the decision-making chain.