City Diplomacy: The Case for Eclectic (and Humble) Theorizing (original) (raw)
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CITY DIPLOMACY: GLOBAL AGENDAS, LOCAL AGREEMENTS
This article aims at analyzing the strengthening of network cooperation between cities inaugurating new forms of diplomacy in the second half of the twentieth century. The main objective being to shed light on diplomatic relations between cities that have been established since the early 20th century and having gained prominence in the latest twenty years. Since 1980 the neoliberal policies of nation-states has boosted the direct action of cities, social movements and NGOs in the search for local solutions to global city problems. Furthermore, in recent years there has been a growing presence of a broad range of financial capitals in special investment funds as a key player to shaping the future of cities matching global goals. This being either due to direct investments or through banks and international agencies, global agreements and goals that conform to principles of investment, with an emphasis in developing countries. The existence at the global level of a new space of tensions and ventures is verified. Geopolitics is kept alive by the clash between institutions from different scales: global organizations, national states and also local powers represented or not in transnational networks.
Principles of modern city diplomacy and the expanding role of municipal foreign policy
Journal of International Affairs, 2021
Modern city diplomacy finds city governments intervening in nearly all foreign policy arenas traditionally managed by nation-states. These trends are explicable by the same factors shaping the “municipal foreign policy” movement during the Cold War, while also growing more complex. In this study, I discuss four factors as they shape current city diplomacy trends. I also discuss their theoretical and policy implications. First, cities intervene to enforce universal norms when the national government violates or fails to enforce them, as seen in global cities recommitting to the Paris Accord in response to the Donald Trump administration’s withdrawal. Second, democratic regimes enable local defiance of national foreign policy, while non-democratic regimes such as China harness a more restricted sort of city diplomacy as an extension of national diplomacy. Third, social movement conditions whereby local officials’ views align with constituents on foreign policy issues enable and constrain city diplomacy activity, as seen in U.S. cities declaring themselves sanctuaries in response to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Fourth, cities often follow economic growth–seeking interests when overlapping with governance issues, as seen in international urban climate change cooperation aimed at foreign market entry, export promotion, and investment attraction.
Global Cities in International Relations: the King's Hand or World Revolutionists
Since the early 2000s, the majority of people live in urban areas, and expectations are that by 2050 75% of the world population will be living in urban settings. Assuming that we have entered an urban age the role of cities as the closest political link to citizens, automatically, will have an effect on how we perceive their legitimacy as diplomatic actors. In the future, global cities such as London, Shanghai and Dubai will have a special role to play which is sometimes referred to as city diplomacy. However, the legitimacy of cities as diplomatic actors and subjects of public international law is a bone of contention. Can we even call cities’ international activity diplomacy or should it not be better-called city lobbying? Looking at the state system, key concepts to our understanding of the functions of sovereignty, hegemony and balance of power will lead to an understanding that sovereignty is an ideal construct and most certainly is not absolute. Moreover, the paper traces the evolution of our perception of the concept of diplomacy to explain why it has become more inclusive and how forces of autonomy have led to a number of new actors at different scales. In a final step, the phenomenon of global cities will be analysed. Taking a city perspective fundamental works such as those of Saskia Sassen, Michelle Acuto and Peter Taylor give explanations to why we can understand cities as hegemony makers or revolutionists of a new global economic system detached from that of the state system…or both.
Boletim de Economia e Politica Internacional, 2023
The international character of cities is intrinsic, giving relevance to their geopolitical role in the global arena. The recent creation and relevance of an interconnected space of cities that may or may not be influenced by nation-states has fostered research on international relations carried out by cities. The purpose of this article is to present the city diplomacy beyond western diplomacy. We seek to conceptualize and categorize city diplomacy, its strategies, and agents since its inception. Focusing on Brazil, we seek to understand how the global South has engaged in this field. Considering that the territory of cities is central to global production and accumulation strategies, city diplomacy sometimes finds it self in the midst of contradictions, in a field of forces in which large corporations, nation-states, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and citizens compete for spaces of power and visions of the city and the world. This scenario leads to the formation of three types of networks in which cities take part: i) project; ii) corporate; and iii) city. Brazilian cities have positioned themselves internationally as consumers of the world, much more than producers, however other cities in the global South seek to insert themselves as producers of global solutions based on the valuation of local strategies. In general, the field of study on city diplomacy requires theoretical and methodological advances to better understand this complex phenomenon.
Conducting City Diplomacy: A Survey of International Engagement in 47 Cities
Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2020
The impact of global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic manifests most acutely in urban settings, rendering cities essential players on the global stage. The individual stories of five cities whose officials participated in the study offer lessons for a variety of challenges and approaches to city diplomacy. Based on the survey results, we discuss the three primary obstacles cities must overcome in order to strengthen the role of city diplomacy globally: inadequate funding and resources for international engagement, insufficient training in city diplomacy, and the failure of national and multilateral bodies to fully recognize and formalize city engagement in diplomacy.
In recent years diplomacy conducted by cities and their contribution to national influence has grown greatly in scale and importance. . This trend is important, as the 21st century challenges of creating prosperous and stable societies around the world cannot be addressed by nation states or central governments alone. With globalisation, cities - long sources of prosperity and culture - will increasingly become important international players in their own right in addressing economic, political, social, and security issues. This paper focuses on the international engagement of cities, examining how they can shape their own destinies and help address urban, national and international challenges. It explores the increasingly important balance between nations - which must give their cities the autonomy and support they need to prosper - and cities - which need to ensure that their pursuit of city-led agendas do not run counter to national interests and diplomacy. The conclusions have significant implications for organisations and individuals within cities, as well as for cities and nations themselves.
Bright Future for City Diplomacy and Soft Power
Cities are once again in the forefront of diplomatic activities. In this essay, I unpack a relatively understudied area within city diplomacy: the link between cities and countries. Although cities enjoy a heightened level of agency in the international arena, they do not exist in a vacuum. As substate actors, the actions of cities could impact their home countries. Using lessons learned from public diplomacy studies and situating soft power as a framework to describe such activities, I first present the changes in the diplomatic landscape that paved the way to resurgence of city diplomacy. Next, I propose a more inclusive definition of the activities of cities in the international arena. Last, I show the link between cities and countries.
Animus of the Underling: Theorizing City Diplomacy in a World Society (pre-print)
The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2018
This article explores the nature of city diplomacy using newly available archives chronicling the ‘municipal foreign policy movement’ of the 1980s, in which US city governments intervened directly in late Cold War foreign affairs issues. Cases covered include US city governments’ involvement in the nuclear free zone movement, the Central American crisis and the anti-Apartheid movement throughout the 1980s. A theoretical synthesis of literature in world society theory, diplomatic studies and social movement theory is used to explain the normative, macro-sociological, legal, democratic and sociopolitical dynamics of contentious city-government intervention in foreign affairs. Emphasizing the normative processes at play, this article argues through a world society theoretical interpretation that ‘municipal foreign policy’ efforts represent local-level codification of universal norms that the US federal government either neglected to enforce or directly violated.
Animus of the Underling: Theorizing City Diplomacy in a World Society
The Hague Journal of Diplomacy
Summary This article explores the nature of city diplomacy using newly available archives chronicling the ‘municipal foreign policy movement’ of the 1980s, in which US city governments intervened directly in late Cold War foreign affairs issues. Cases covered include US city governments’ involvement in the nuclear free zone movement, the Central American crisis and the anti-Apartheid movement throughout the 1980s. A theoretical synthesis of literature in world society theory, diplomatic studies and social movement theory is used to explain the normative, macro-sociological, legal, democratic and sociopolitical dynamics of contentious city-government intervention in foreign affairs. Emphasizing the normative processes at play, this article argues through a world society theoretical interpretation that ‘municipal foreign policy’ efforts represent local-level codification of universal norms that the US federal government either neglected to enforce or directly violated.
Unpacking Joint Attributions of Cities and Nation States as Actors in Global Affairs
The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2022
Public diplomacy efforts of nation states and cities within these states inevitably develop alongside each other, giving rise to joint attributions regarding these entities as actors in global affairs, though also potentially intensifying perceptions of their independent and even contradictory roles in international diplomacy. Variations in attributions of cities and states as more or less conjoint actors can be expected to affect both the visibility of key actors and the formation of attitudes and behaviours towards these actors in international affairs. In this article I explore how and in what dimensions such variations can be expected to occur, applying recent thinking on the constitution of social actors to this emerging debate in public and city diplomacy scholarship and proposing a conceptual framework that distinguishes joint 'selfhood' and 'actorhood' as key dimensions of joint city/state attributions. The article includes a discussion of the implications of this conceptualisation for public and city diplomacy.