In the last years of the twentieth century, scholars solidly focused on paradiplomacy as a study subject, linking it to federalism and decentralised systems. In the Arab world, which has 22 countries, a few states have adopted federalism or decentralisation. Only five countries, i.e., 22.7%, have adopted federalism and decentralised experience. Therefore, limited research and academic work has been conducted regarding paradiplomacy. This paper aims to research the relationship between federalism and paradiplomacy conceptually and practically and then analyse the Arab experiences in federalism and whether they applied paradiplomacy and succeeded in doing so. To explore that, the paper studies and compares the related articles of constitutions of these five countries, which revealed a noticeable differentiation in terms of competencies granted to sub-state actors in these countries. The paper suggests and encourages doing more in-depth research on this issue to clarify why federalism and then paradiplomacy succeeded in some countries and failed in others.
