Sub-national Diplomacy: A Wake-up Call to County Governments in Kenya
Traditionally, diplomacy has been a preserve of the state in which representatives of a given country manage international relations abroad. However, the growing influence of non-state actors in the international political space continues to galvanize a rethink among scholars of what constitutes diplomacy. When President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the Governors of California, New York, and Washington issued a joint statement affirming that they were still in the fight against climate change. Governor Jerry Brown of California went ahead to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss matters climate change (Sloss, 2017). Sub-national actors are under the authority of the national government and despite their good intentions, they are limited by constitutional provisions that prevent them from entering into treaties with foreign powers in addition to other challenges like finances and expertise required f