CITY DIPLOMACY: STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING IN THE AGE OF INCREASING CITY NETWORKS

联合国《新城市议程》强调了城市和城市行为体在促进和实施全球可持续发展方面的责任。关于城市环境对我们未来一些最重大挑战（包括气候变化适应、减少灾害风险、复原力、全球健康、安全和经济）的作用，也有越来越多的令人信服的证据，这些证据正日益被学术界和国际社会所接受。因此，这使得城市政策成为一些关键全球方案的核心，过去十年，作为应对这些复杂挑战的手段，“城市网络”的数量急剧增加。虽然有越来越多的文献描述城市网络及其在促进发展方面的作用，但关于城市在大量可能的城市网络之间进行选择的决策过程的文献是有限的。这在一定程度上是因为，目前还没有正式的、制度化的治理安排来加入这些网络，而且决策更多是出于机会主义，而非战略性。这可能会适得其反，导致重叠和低效地使用城市已经紧张的资源。“今天，城市网络活动的一个重要部分可以被合理地描述为‘城市外交’，因为它们构成了合法的政治代表（在这个例子中是城市）之间的调解‘国际’关系，它们导致了协议、合作、进一步的机构建设和跨界合作。”（Acuto & Rayner, 2016）本研究旨在首先在宏观层面探索审查和批准选定城市网络所需的国家或地方治理结构和流程的潜在形式。其次，在微观层面上，本研究旨在为城市行为者提供明智的决策过程，以选择将重点放在哪些城市网络上。为了支持这项研究，需要根据城市网络的地理和主题分布、治理结构、目标和城市所需的投入来研究城市网络。此外，在整个博士学位期间，本研究将致力于探索一些关于城市网络和相关城市和全球政策要求的问题。

The UN's New Urban Agenda highlights the responsibility of cities and city actors in promoting and implementing global sustainable development. There is also compelling and growing evidence regarding the role of urban environments on some of our most significant future challenges (including climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, resilience, global health, security and the economy) that is increasingly being accepted by the academic and global community. Consequently, this has placed urban policy at the core of a number of key global programmes and the past decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number of 'city networks' as a means of responding to these complex challenges. While there is a growing body of literature describing city networks and their role in promoting development, the literature is limited regarding the decision-making process of the city in selecting between the vast arrays of possible city networks. This is partly because there are still no formal and institutionalised governance arrangements for joining these networks, and decisions are made more opportunistically than strategically. This can be counter-productive and lead to overlapping and inefficient use of a city's already stretched resources. "Today, an important portion of city networking activities can be justifiably described as 'city diplomacy', in that they constitute mediated 'international' relations between rightful representatives of polities (cities in this instance), and that they result in agreements, collaborations, further institution- building and cooperation across boundaries." (Acuto & Rayner, 2016) This research aims to first explore at a macro level the potential forms of national or local governance structures and processes required to review and ratify selected city networks. Secondly, at a micro level, this research aims to propose informed decision-making processes for city actors for choosing which city networks to focus their efforts on. To support this research the city networks need to be studied based on their geographic and thematic spread, their governance structure, their objectives and the required input from the city. Furthermore, throughout the PhD this research will aim to explore a number of questions regarding city networks and the relevant urban and global policy requirements.