Building a Robust Framework for U.S. City Diplomacy

CPD's newest paper, "Building a Robust Capacity Framework for U.S. City Diplomacy," authored by CPD Director Jay Wang and CPD Research Associate Sohaela Amiri, advances the conversation on city diplomacy with key takeaways from the 2018 Future of City Diplomacy Summit, which gathered leaders with international purview from 17 U.S. cities for a one-day workshop to share practices of city diplomacy and explore the opportunities and challenges facing U.S. cities’ global engagement agendas and strategies.

In the paper, Wang and Amiri lay out the necessary skills, capabilities, and resources required for cities' emergent role on the global stage, as well as how city diplomacy can be more strategically tied to cities' international outlook and interests. Key recommendations include stronger focus on policy- and data-driven planning and strengthening citizen support for global engagement.

"There is a need to better understand the mechanisms through which cities become international actors and influencers," write Wang and Amiri. "This power provides a strong counterpoint to political gridlocks that we often see these days at the national level. Can city diplomacy be the platform through which cities assert themselves as global actors and advance their local constituencies’ global interests?"

Read the full report here.