DECENTRALIZED INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR MUNICIPALITIES

The aim of this paper is to explore the opportunities and challenges for municipal action in decentralized international cooperation (DIC), understood as cooperation initiatives established by sub-national entities. While the classic approaches to international cooperation in the field of International Relations focus on the role of national states as protagonists, the concept of decentralized international cooperation considers the role of actors such as municipalities, federal states and other institutions in cooperative processes. Through a survey of papers published in the annals of the benchmark event in the field of International Relations in Brazil (National Meetings of the Brazilian Association of International Relations), between 2007 and 2023, we seek to answer the question: what are the opportunities and challenges for decentralized international cooperation in municipalities? In terms of methodology, the research adopts a qualitative approach, consulting bibliographic sources for exploratory purposes. The results suggest that the opportunities of identifying intersections between the local management plan and international agendas, and that the main challenges lie in the strategic planning of such actions and in their institutionalization and operationalization at the local level. It was also noted that there is still a relative lack of discussion about the international relations of municipalities in the interior of Brazil.