Traits and Patterns of Paradiplomacy to Legitimise Catalonia Independence: The Case of DiploCat

Public diplomacy actions are carried out by States to influence foreign public opinion. Electronic media has been used to disseminate messages, and with new digital platforms, countries resort to them to expand their messages. Although public diplomacy is carried out by nations, evidence demonstrates that regions within countries or sub-states have used it. That is the case of Quebec, Basque Country, Scotland, or Catalonia, for instance. Some authors called this practice as paradiplomacy, and, regardless of the title, the notion is to seek external support to their specific causes. The goal of this chapter is to analyse the characteristics and patterns of the Catalonia public paradiplomacy strategy through a content analysis of the DiploCat website and of the presence of the Catalan separation in the international press and in academic literature. With the results, the authors place their analysis under digital and public diplomacy functions to better understand the identified characteristics, frames, and reach.