Jakarta-Rotterdam sister city cooperation : A study of paradiplomacy in practice

• Main Author: Ika Fristyawati
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: JZ5-6530 International relations
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37925/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37925/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37925/

The trends of a large-scale international engagement by non-central governments has recently took place in international system; a phenomenan know as "paradiplomacy". In Indonesia, the democratization process has been rolling since 1998 with a decentralization of authority as one of its main core. This process allows regional autonomy to take shape in the form of autonomy of sub-national government to initiate foreign cooperation. Several authorities and jurisdictions held by the central government were delegated to local governments. One example of a decentralized authority is an international engagement and cooperation between local government and international entities, such as Jakarta-Rotterdam Sister City Cooperation. The concept of Sister Cities or Twin Cities is about coupling two cities in different location with different political administration to build cultural relationships and social contact. Paradiplomacy approach will be used to discuss Jakarta-Rotterdam Sister Oty cooperation in the field of water management. The main objectives of this research are to examine factors that initiate Jakarta in engaging Sister City cooperation with Rotterdam; its implementation as well as to understand the impacts of Jakarta-Rotterdam Sister City cooperation (paradiplomacy) on the bilateral relation between Indonesia and Netherlands. This paper adopts qualitative analysis of primary and secondary data. The findings show that paradiplomacy activity in the form of Sister Oty relationship provides more benefrt:s, especially in enhancing the bilateral relation of Indonesia and Netherlands. This study suggests that the Indonesian Government should improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Sister City cooperation for a better performance in diplomacy.