City Diplomacy and the Internationalization of Cities

This chapter explores city diplomacy's rise and multifaceted nature, emphasizing its growing relevance in global politics. As urban centers increasingly engage in international affairs through cooperation agreements, multilateral networks, development aid, and advocacy, cities emerge as distinct diplomatic actors. The author defines city diplomacy as the institutionalized international engagement of municipalities with foreign actors to pursue local interests, situated between formal state diplomacy and informal civil society activism. The chapter outlines the conceptual underpinnings of city diplomacy, examines its normative dimensions (notably its contributions to democratization and legitimacy), and identifies key explanatory variables - both internal (e.g., mayoral leadership, urban society, resources, political culture) and external (e.g., transnational networks, international organizations). The chapter argues that cities operate in a complex multilevel system marked by both cooperation and competition with national governments, and that their international activism is increasingly both functional and normative, responding to global crises and asserting democratic agency. The chapter also situates city diplomacy historically and regionally, noting its divergent roots in North America's social mobilization and Europe's decentralized cooperation. Ultimately, the author calls for greater recognition of cities as legitimate international actors and emphasizes the need for a new normative and institutional framework to fully integrate them into global governance.