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Paradiplomacy has become one of the most intriguing results of a historical process of gradual weakening of the nation-state as a privileged actor of the international arena. This article explores the historical conditions that made possible, first, the emergence of the contemporary international system as a conglomerate of sovereign states, beginning in the mid-17th century, its progressive expansion at a planetary scale with its respective consequences and its transformation into a globalized system of interdependent states by the early part of the 21st century. On the other hand, the article attempts to explain the historical causes of the mysterious weakening of the formal structures of the sovereign state, which in turn allowed the phenomenon of paradiplomacy to emerge in the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]