Published in The Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs, vol. 10 (Spring 2007), the overall argument of this article is that rather than seeing paradiplomacy as a threat, it should be embraced as a necessity and opportunity in the process of managing and ultimately resolving what might otherwise be protracted self-determination conflicts. Following a brief conceptual introduction to what autonomy means, I explore the policy areas I which such entities participate in the international arena. I then make some general observations about opportunity and interest structures as factors that determine the practical scope of paradiplomacy and illustrate this with three western European examples—Flanders in Belgium, Catalonia in Spain, and Scotland in the United Kingdom. Finally I return to the question of whether paradiplomacy is indeed a challenge to state sovereignty and what its practical limits and opportunities are to contribute to the constructive management of self-determination conflicts.