Читать книгу Global Political Cities - Kent E. Calder - Страница 26

For more than 370 years, since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the principal organizational unit of international affairs has been the nation-state. Nations have generally enjoyed a monopoly on coercion within their borders. And the principle of nonintervention in the domestic affairs of other countries has become a global standard—in theory, at least, if not always in practice. State sovereignty has become the transcendent normative rule and an empirical assumption, as well.

In reality, of course, the world has never been quite so simple. Subnational units, including guilds, industry associations, churches, and, of course, cities, have long played influential political roles. Meanwhile, supranational bodies, ranging from the Holy Roman Empire to, more recently, the European Union and NATO, have operated conspicuously on the international stage.

This book focuses on the twenty-first century political role of cities in international affairs, within the broader context of complex interdependence; cities are only one species in the jungle of international relations. We argue that global cities are increasingly influential agenda-setters, participants in global governance, resource allocators, and laboratories for policy innovation. In some areas, such as environmental regulation, cities are becoming central actors in addressing global problems, owing to their activism in all four political-economic dimensions outlined in the previous chapter.

This pattern of municipal activism and influence is new, but nevertheless replete with venerable origins, predating the past four centuries of nation-state ascendancy. It rests on a powerful, age-old geo-economic foundation—the power of proximity that flows naturally from the reduced shipping costs and intensified idea flow pertaining to transactions in an urban community.¹ To understand the promising recent trajectory of cities in international affairs, it is important to review their long struggle with nation-states for preeminence. It is vital to understand the cyclical nature of this competition: why cities first rose, then fell, and over the past few decades have risen once again.