PARADIPLOMACY AND THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL CITY: JAKARTA AS A SUBSTATE POLITICAL ACTOR

Abstract

Following Indonesia’s decision to relocate its national capital to Nusantara, Jakarta was designated as a Global City under Law No. 2/2024 on the Special Regional Province of Jakarta (DKJ). This status grants Jakarta enhanced political authority, enabling it to participate more actively in global affairs through paradiplomacy while strengthening its international profile. Previous studies on Jakarta’s paradiplomacy and Global City status have focused primarily on sister-city cooperation and economic dimensions. This qualitative study examines Jakarta's paradiplomacy in its pursuit of Global City status by focusing on its political dimensions, an understudied aspect of existing literature. The analysis centers on two forms of paradiplomacy: sister-city partnerships and transnational networks. It further argues that Global City status expands the scope of subnational governmental authority, enabling Jakarta to exercise political actorness by responding to global challenges such as the refugee crisis. The findings indicate that Jakarta's paradiplomacy has become more structured under its Global City status. The study concludes that Jakarta's pursuit of Global City status through paradiplomacy demonstrates how substate actors can complement the state's role in addressing global issues. More broadly, Global City status and paradiplomacy reinforce one another, functioning simultaneously as both a goal and a driving force that strengthens the capacity of substate actors to emerge as global political actors.