Особливості парадипломатії Львівської області у глобальній політиці

Paradiplomacy has been one of the leading trends in global politics over the past 50 years. Ukraine is no exception, as after the restoration of its sovereign statehood in 1991, it allowed its territorial communities to engage in some transnational activity, especially in the framework of the country’s European integration. However, the attempts of Ukraine’s regions to become subjects of global politics have not been studied sufficiently, unlike their European (cross-border) activities, both because of the researchers’ emphasis on the latter and because of the theoretical and practical difficulties of studying the paradiplomacy of the regions of unitary states in general. Against this background, the study of the global activity of the authorities of the Lviv region, a region of a unitary state, especially under martial law, which is characterized by the concentration of power in the hands of the center of the state, and on the ground – in state bodies as opposed to self-governing ones, is an important case that shows the practical ability of regions of unitary states to act in global politics. Moreover, Lviv region, with its border location, is active in cross-border relations with regions and communities of EU member states. Therefore, it should demonstrate similar activity in relations with subnational actors from other continents and parts of the world. However, an analysis of the website of the self-governing regional authority (Lviv Oblast Council and its specialized units) involved in international (transnational) activities shows that in its international activities, the relations of the Lviv Oblast of Ukraine with European countries and regions are dominated by similar attempts to act in the global arena. This global activity of the regional council, as a regional government body, is focused on several economically and politically important countries (the United States, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan) and one intergovernmental organization – the United Nations. This is paradoxical against the background of more balanced transnational (bilateral, continental, global) activity of the authorities of the regional center, Lviv. This fact, on the one hand, can be explained by the difference in the status of a region and a city in a unitary state, which traditionally grants the right of subjectivity in transnational relations, and even in global politics, to individual local communities, but not to their associations – regions, for reasons of national security, in particular territorial integrity. On the other hand, it can be explained by the fact that the region’s global activity is driven by image and humanitarian considerations rather than economic ones, and therefore cannot be fruitful and lasting without an economic basis. This is in contrast to the cooperation of Lviv region with the EU and its member states and regions, which has a substantial economic content.