The European Union is directly affected by political crises within member states. One of the challenges many of the member countries face comes in the form of secessionism. The secessionist...Show moreThe European Union is directly affected by political crises within member states. One of the challenges many of the member countries face comes in the form of secessionism. The secessionist sentiment in Europe is especially felt in the United Kingdom and Spain. Whereby secessionism has been able to move to the political mainstream. This thesis has sought to analyse in accordance to the framework of Mechanics of Cultural diplomacy: A comparative case.” (Kizlari & Fouseki, 2017) how regional secessionist governments have instrumentalised semi-public institutions to conduct sub-state diplomacy. The thesis analyses the legal mandate, the operational structure of Scotland Europa and Diplocat to discover whether they subjected to the direct influence of their respective regional governments. Subsequently, the thesis analyses the frames employed by the organisations in their communications to understand the objective of their publications in order to conclude how regional governments instrumentalised them. The analysis demonstrates that in both the Catalan and Scottish case the organisations were indeed instrumentalised to conduct sub-state diplomacy. Yet, the objectives were different. On one hand the Catalans sought to internationalise their self-determination effort and appealed to the European Union to mediate in the national conflict. On the other hand, the Scottish government has sought to influence EU decision making through more conventional channels such as consultation responses and the publication of papers. Finally, it has become clear that both the Catalan and Scottish government see European Union membership as a crucial part of their independence.Show less
