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Arctic Yearbook 2015
International parliamentary institutions in contemporary international relations
Among the many signs of change in the modern-day international community, it is useful to highlight
the gradual structural bifurcation in levels of governance. In other words, international relations today
are a stage where two worlds coexist or even overlap – one state-centric, the other composed of
transnational actors (Pietraś 2009). As Pietraś suggests, “Although both ‘worlds’ are integral
components of the same international reality, there are many distinctive qualities that characterize each
of them, underlining the structural hybridity of entities in the international realm” (Pietraś 2009: 32).
This hybridity, coupled with ever more intensive transboundary relations, redefines and restructures
interactions between states, ‘imposing’ and accelerating the development of mechanisms governing
the international arena (Pietraś 2007). Some interesting consequences of this evolution include an
increasingly ‘saturated’ international political scene and a progressive blurring of boundaries and
borders, of differences between the intrastate and the interstate domain (Łoś-Nowak 2013: 49).
Furthermore, Surmacz indicates that “a change in the distribution of power in international relations
[resulting from the aforementioned processes] has resulted in parallel changes in the diplomatic
realm,” which in turn has led to “the modern diplomatic community [becoming] akin to a series of
interactions among both state and non-state actors representing interests that are organized both
territorially and non-territorially, implementing both official and unofficial forms of diplomacy”
(Surmacz 2013: 9). One example of this relatively new situation is the increasingly dynamic expansion
of the international dimension in the activities of different national parliaments (Torbiörn 2007;
Puzyna 2007), which Florczak-Wątor and Czarny believe has made “international cooperation input
from parliaments a common phenomenon in the world today” (Florczak-Wątor, Czarny 2012: 45).
The goal of this part of the paper is to synthesize fundamental conceptual approaches surrounding
this modern-day development trend in international relations, highlight its versatility, and especially
move toward a clearer notion of the processes behind the creation and operation of interparliamentary institutions.
Before delving into the structural characteristics of the international community that underlie the
growing involvement of legislative bodies in creating foreign policy, it bears establishing that “a
parliament is a … body organized under a state that is a legitimate subject of international law and, as
such, engages in international legal relations with other similar subjects” (Florczak-Wątor, Czarny
2012: 45). While this formulation could be considered a response to any potential questions as to the
legitimacy and legal foundations for such activity on the part of parliamentarians, it is at once only a
starting point for further clarifying discussion. Jaskiernia, for instance, asks, “How do we treat these
activities of representatives of national legislatures in the realm of foreign affairs – as instances of
‘parliamentary diplomacy’ or beyond?” (Jaskiernia 2013: 166). In pursuing the answer to this question
it is worth noting at the outset that, for several decades now (though the specifics vary by country),
“parliaments no longer limit themselves to making foreign policy, but also expand into executing it”
(Florczak-Wątor & Czarny 2012: 45; Malamud & Stavridis 2011). As far as the extent of control over
this area of policymaking is concerned, the clout and capacity of national parliaments have indeed
increased.
Łuszczuk