I

n less than a year Indonesia will host simultaneous provincial and city-level elections with more than 500 positions for governors, mayors, and regents being contested. It will be a major democratic event not only for Indonesians, but for the world, thanks to our status as the world'€™s third-largest democracy.

Despite all the anticipation of money politics getting involved, the 2015 local elections will an unprecedented significance have and impact on Indonesian diplomacy as well as to its foreign policy simply because, as famously said by Richard Haas, '€œforeign policy begins at home'€.

Global trends will bring to the fore cities and city governments as the new actors in international relations and diplomacy. Those trends are: the increasing urgency of urban development and the globalization of cities.

First, the World Bank indicates there are 3.5 billion people living in cities, or roughly 54 percent of the planet'€™s 8 billion people. More importantly, cities are the venue for 80 percent of global GDP. Both urban population and cities'€™ contribution to GDP are projected to grow. Thirty years ahead, urban population is estimated to be at 150 percent of its current number.

Cities will therefore need to address growing demands for services in health care, infrastructure and technology, education, entertainment, etc. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute reported ASEAN cities will need some US$7 trillion worth of investment to meet these challenges.

Second, globalization has standardized many aspects of our lives and cities have evolved to meet our updated standards in public policy deliverance and services. Information technology has become the catalyst for globalization of cities, but the core at city-driven globalization of the 21st century is competitiveness.

According to the World Economic Forum, information technology, considered as a basic hardware for connectivity, is one-quarter of the parameter used to measure a city'€™s competitiveness. If cities aspire to transcend their physical and geographical borders, they need to reform their institutions, devise their own economic policies for business and investments and cement their social capital as the center for connectivity and innovation. Cities such as Singapore, London, Chicago, and now Dubai have joined the caliber of global cities because of their competitiveness on the global stage.

The world has started to look at cities to be the future loci of problem solving mechanisms. Parag Khanna, an expert on urban development and the author of Hybrid Reality, argues that cities can lead in solving global problems such as climate change. While climate diplomacy has made little progress globally, a network of 60 city mayors and governments are collaborating to reduce global carbon footprints under the C40 initiative.

For Indonesia'€™s future mayors and regents, internalizing these trends into their policy strategies is a quintessential objective. Direct local elections have amplified the democratic participation of city dwellers with a much higher impact factor in comparison to national elections. Fresh approaches to classical issues of bureaucratic bottlenecks through technology-facilitated citizens'€™ participation has brought hopes for gradually addressing the reform agenda as well as battling corruption.

What does it mean for Indonesian diplomacy and foreign policy?

The rise of cities in international settings means that mayors and regents alike need to have diplomacy and networking skills to tap into global opportunities to spur growth within their city borders. If they do consider foreign investments as one of the solutions to address increasing demands for public services, then they are also exerting the diplomatic functions traditionally and solely done by Indonesian diplomats.

Despite lacking training as diplomats, future mayors and regents will inevitably represent and negotiate for Indonesia since they do represent certain geographical areas and some percentage of Indonesia'€™s 250 million people. Thus, the future mayors and regents could partner with diplomats and officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry as well as other ministries.

A decade ago then foreign minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda introduced the concept of '€œtotal diplomacy'€ as Indonesia'€™s foreign policy strategy to engage the world. This concept aimed to broaden the actors and involvement of Indonesians in many aspects, such as business and investment, society and culture, as well as education (regarding Indonesian students abroad) in introducing and promoting Indonesia and our commodities overseas.

With the growing importance of cities and city governments, isn'€™t it time to consider governors, mayors and regents as member of this so-called one-track diplomacy?

Maybe the rising eminence of cities and mayors could be dubbed an '€œurbanization of foreign policy'€ '€” the increasing roles and capacities of city government in Indonesian diplomacy and foreign policy within, as well as beyond, the traditional conception of multi-track diplomacy.

Before the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia gave birth to the nation-state system, cities were at the center of trade, civilization, and diplomacy. In fact, the Peloponnesian War happened between polis (cities) in what is today Greece.

This involvement of regional leaders in foreign policy is not without constraints, especially when not addressed comprehensively. We have 34 provinces and 514 city-level governments according to the Home Minister'€™s Decree 39/2015 on Code and Data of Administration Areas '€” meaning some 548 sub-national leaderships in both provinces and cities.

Without proper capacity-building and training in diplomatic skills, mayors and regents could become liabilities instead of assets for future Indonesian diplomacy and foreign policy. Considering the diversity and inequality in Indonesia'€™s development, the diplomatic skills of our local leaders would vary widely.

And given that diplomacy and understanding of global opportunities are not popular traits during local elections, the Foreign Affairs Ministry can lead other stakeholders to prepare future mayors and regents to work side-by-side with diplomats in advancing our national interests abroad.