Comparing international city networks: Towards a better theoretical and empirical analysis

This paper provides a first systematic and comparative analysis of international city networks as emerging actors in International Relations (IR). Urban studies have emphasized the growing number of international city networks and their activities, including the rise of city diplomacy, the growth of administrative units aimed at international contacts, but also the implementation of global policies on the local level via these networks. Yet, there is little systematic research on “what kind of beast” these city networks are from a perspective of IR, and how they relate to well-established theoretical concepts like global governance, transnational networks or global norms. Following an introduction to city networks as actors, we analyze a sample of 30 established networks, showing a large diversity of these networks in many aspects relevant to IR. International city networks consist of a diverse range of actors, including private ones, and they are dedicated to policy change and implementation in many issue areas of global governance. At the same time, their variety also shows that causal explanations of their existence, their activities and their effects are largely missing. All in all, this research note gives a first systematic introduction to the variety of city networks in global governance, systematically outlining research questions for IR and political science.