How Do National Governments Shape and Control Cities’ International Cooperation? Meta-governance Analysis of City Diplomacy

Cities play an increasingly important role in international relations and are indispensable in solving global challenges. In this context, the authors have been wondering to what extent they can interact autonomously on the international stage, and what tools do national governments use to shape and control their actions? This paper uses the meta-governance approach to examine intergovernmental relations in the context of cities’ international relations. The authors reveal that states mostly rely on a full range of hands-off tools rather than hands-on ones. Attempts to hierarchically regulate cities’ international relations are limited and depend on the country’s context. Furthermore, the authors reveal that informational tools play a dominant role in intergovernmental relations and are rarely the result of strategic policy structuring by the state government. These findings have important implications for future efforts to address the multi-level governance approach in the context of cities’ international cooperation.