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Finally, since a state’s foreign relations and domestic political environment have a certain influence on cities’ diplomatic activities (Hung, 2011:6), this thesis will take the status of Taiwan’s international relations and political climate as basis to discuss the achievements and limitations in NTC.
1.7 Chapters Arrangement
This thesis consists of five chapters which can be divided into three parts (see Figure 1-3). Part One will be discussed in Chapter One and Chapter Two, an overall historical background, problem statement, profile of NTC, research purposes, methodology and literature review on the topic will be clearly illustrated. In this part, we attempt to explore development of city diplomacy based on the existing academic literatures, official documents and relevant materials from macroscopic perspective at the international level, as a basis for exploring NTC’s city diplomacy.
Part Two is composed of Chapter Three and Chapter Four, and is the main focus of this thesis. Abundant relevant examples are expected as important materials and convincing evidences in this section. We will analyze the city’s bilateral city-to-city cooperation and multilateral city-network participation. In addition to city’s practice, city’s diplomatic status, strategies and challenges in terms of legal procedure and political climate during NTC’s first mayor, Mayor Eric Chu’s first term will be explored comprehensively.
Finally, in Part Three, Chapter Five of the thesis will conclude the findings, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current city-diplomacy policies, and further provide recommendations for the future work.
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Figure 1-3: Chapters Arrangement
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Chapter 2
Development of City Diplomacy
2.1 Definition and Origin of City Diplomacy
2.1.1 Definition and Theoretical DebatesGiven that cities have become very active in the global arena since the last quarter of the 20th century, the term, ‘city diplomacy' has gained increasing usage and acceptance in various international issues (Arnau, 2013: 50). Academic discussion on the definition of city diplomacy is not abundant. Van der Pluijm (2007: 11) proposed the comprehensive concept of city diplomacy which is conceptualized as “institutions and processes by which cities engage in relations with actors on an international political stage with the aim of representing themselves and their interests to one another.”
Under Van der Pluijm’s definition, the representative of city is seriously taken, and the concept of city diplomacy could be considered as a form of decentralization of traditional international relations which was dominated by states. With such a definition, the interactions among cities are not only limited to sister city movement and city-to-city activities and are more consistent with the reality of cities’ thriving role in multilateral city networks on the international stage.
In fact, in light of cities’ diverse roles in the global arena, the naming of city diplomacy is different in regions through the decades. In case of Russia and former Soviet countries, the terms of brother (pobratimy) cities or related (porodnennye) cities are used to describe formal city-to-city friendly relations. Other terms, such as municipal international cooperation, city-to-city cooperation, town-twinning, sister city movement, friendship city relationship and etc. are all used often worldwide.
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Although these are no universal and coherent terms, these terms generally refer to “at least two local government bodies in different countries cooperate in a more or less official framework.” (Buis, 2009: 191)
It is also noteworthy that citizens are important basis of the process of city diplomacy, especially in the U.S. where grass-root groups are dominant actor of development and practice of city-to-city exchanges programs in local communities (Cross, 2010).
However, citizens’ active involvements in citizen movement cannot be considered as city diplomacy, unless they represent the city with authorization of the local government. There is another term to conceptualize citizens’ unofficial contacts between people from different countries, as opposed to official contacts between governmental representatives, namely ‘citizen diplomacy’. (Chigas, 2003)
As expounded in Literature Review in Chapter One, there are various forms of cooperation and exchanges among cities. Cities can engage in relations with other actors on the international political stage through bilateral interactions, such as bilateral sister city movement and city-to-city cooperation or through multilateral city network participation. Unfortunately, in the current academic studies, most attentions are paid to sister city related researches, while other types of international exchanges between cities are neglected. For a more complete picture of this topic, this thesis would like to explore the areas which have long been neglected. That is to comprehend the actual interaction status and robust debate over the role of sister city relationship in the academic studies. Regarding to the approach of the formal sister city agreement, Cremer et al. (1996) introduced the ‘integrated approach’ to analysis of sister cities, whereby “cities rediscover one of their original roles as meeting places between different people and cultures, and thus create a (market) place for economic and business activities.”
O’Toole (2001: 405) identified three stages in development: the associative,
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reciprocative and commercial approaches. Associative refers to “establish relations with other cities around the globe were based upon notions of international friendship, cultural exchange and a general international awareness”; reciprocative conceptualized from “the growth of an educational exchanges system that helped to broaden and development the sister city movement”; and the final stage, commercial is “an attempt to take advantage of the process to further their local economic aims.”
These three stages do not been listed in sequence but interlinking approaches.
Cremer et al. (2001) further expanded the debates and developed the hybrid approach,
‘municipal-community entrepreneurship’ which suggested the distinguishing feature for viable and successful sister city relationship required significant community activism for the mutual advantages of economic and social actors in both cities.
It is not difficult to discover from the above elaboration that exchanges of sister cities have shifted from the traditional cultural understanding and peace advocating to local economic development. Nevertheless, relevant researches are few and far between and mainly take cities in the western countries as instances, and may not provide the whole picture of the evolution of city diplomacy. There are many other practical initiatives among cities waiting to be explored. However, town twinning initiatives/sister city movements are still the most representative phenomenon of city diplomacy due to peaceful atmosphere pursued by the western countries since the end of WWII.
2.1.2 Origin of City Diplomacy: Town Twinning in the Europe
The first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord in Nord, France, in 1920 following the end of the First World War. The practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to promote mutual
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understanding and cross-border projects of mutual benefit.6 The flourishing period of development of city diplomacy can be traced back to town twinning among border towns between France and Germany since the end of WWII. It was thought that if people of different nations got to know and understand each other on a personal level by meeting in their normal environments, even their private homes, then the horrors of war would never be repeated. The aftermath of WWII provided an ideal climate for the European countries to reconcile rival relations of the past. (Mascitelli, 2008) One of the most important factors for improving relations between France and Germany is the two sides were willing to face their historical issues with honest and fair attitude, not only the national political leaders of two countries make efforts for closer security and economic ties, but city mayors, city councilmen as well as local private sectors, attempted to create a healthy environment through binational exchanges, town twinning. A large number of town twinning initiatives between towns on either side of Rhine therefore developed as a significant mechanism to improve hostile atmosphere in Europe. (Campbell, 1987)
Since the 1950s, European integration has seen the development of a supranational system of governance. There are two fundamental goals in the years of European reconstruction: protecting the right of individual and of the community and creating a new atmosphere of Franco-German cooperation under the European framework.
(Campbell, 1987) Local leaders in Europe learned the lesson from the inter-war period that the primary interest for people was peace. Town twinning initiatives under the concept of European integration have had gradually emerged for bolstering mutual understanding and restoring their torn relationships. (Joenniemi, 2011)
The post-war initiative to improve Franco-German relations originated in Switzerland
6 "Town twinning in the UK and Germany". East Street Arts. Retrieved 2015-03-03, https://wygoveryonder.wordpress.com/about-town-twinning-in-the-uk-and-germany/
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through two Swiss scholars, Dr. Eugen Wyler and Dr. Hans Zbinden by calling a conference of French and German city mayors, Franco-German Mayors Committee at Mont Pelerin on Lake Geneva in June 1948. Initially, the meeting was not going well due to mistrust of two sides, until the third conference in May 1950 in Paris, the Mayors Committee was transformed into the International Mayors Union for Franco-German Understanding and European Cooperation (IBU), which was formally set up for the aim of promoting the European unity, the idea of development of friendly relations by various city-to-city and person-to-person cooperation among its members cities, namely town twinning initiatives therefore spread out. (Campbell, 1987)
Slightly later than the IBU, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) established in January 1951 with supports of sixty-eight city mayors and city officials from eight European countries. However, the central idea of the CEMR differed from the IBU. Unlike IBU taking Franco-German cooperation as essential precondition before Europe integration and emphasizing on affiliations building only between French and German border cities, the CEMR; on the other hand, paid more attention to city partnerships in all European member countries without different country priority. Nowadays, CEMR is still an active and broadest European association of local and regional government which has more than 150,000 local-government members from 14 European countries. (CEMR, n.d.)
According to CEMR’s statistics on town twinnings in Europe in 2010, there are 2,281 ties between France and Germany, far ahead of the second place, UK and France (1,065) and the third place, Poland and Germany (1,021). (see Table 2-1) Town twinning affiliations between France and Germany are closer than those with other European countries. Besides, France and German have in total 6,776 and 6,048 town twinnings respectively, which are far more than the second place country, Poland
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(3,508) and other European countries. Town twinning has initiated among border cities between France and German and now is spreading out to the wide Europe since WWII. Until the end of 2010, there are in total 39,508 town twinnings in the European Union (EU). The data demonstrate that town twinning between France and German is more active than between other European members. Not surprisingly due to their unique political history and geographical position in Europe, the two countries have kept their leading position in town twinning development since the 1950s. Until today, the town twinning movement is still thriving and plays an important role under the structure of European unity.
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Table 2-1: The Number of Twinnings in Europe in 2010
Source: Council of European Municipalities and Regions, Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.twinning.org/uploads/assets/news/Number%20of%20twinnings%20in%20Europe
%20in%202010.pdf
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European Union (EU) plays an important role in promoting town twinning. In fact, the initial motivation of establishment of EU is to rebuild Europe after WWII, as well as concerns about Europe will once again fall into the quagmire of war. Within Europe, town twinning is supported by the EU. The support scheme was established in 1989. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) also work closely with the European Commission (DG Education and Culture) to promote twinning initiatives and exchanges. The European Commission continuing provided long-term funding to support town-twinning movement as an important bridge to bring cities within the Europe closer. Today, European countries faced with certain social tensions, such as economic depression, racial discrimination and religious hostility. Now the EU takes the citizenship as an important element in strengthening civic participation through the "Europe for Citizens" program for the period 2007-2013, which aims to repair fragmented European society with a wide range of activities and organizations promoting ‘active European citizenship’ (European Commission, n.d.). Town twinning has undergone a near-metamorphosis in the recent past, reflecting its position in an ever more rapidly changing world. Yet it is still thriving and has retained all its original values.
2.1.3 Origin of City Diplomacy: Sister City Movement in the U.S.
Development of city diplomacy in the U.S. has been flourishing since the 1950s;
however, follows rather different course from Europe. The first city in the U.S. to establish a sister-city relationship was Toledo, Ohio, which affiliated with Toledo, Spain, in 1931. The US sister city program formally began at the White House Conference on September 11, 1956 that when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a People-to-People Program on citizen diplomacy initiative. President Eisenhower reasoned that people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate
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their differences and build partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.
According to President Eisenhower’s speech at the Conference,“…… If we are going to take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together and to leap governments - if necessary to evade governments - to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other" which highlights the importance of citizens’ direct contact without intervention from the state. (People-to-People Program, n.d.)
Sister Cities International (SCI) was created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House Conference on citizen diplomacy. Since its inception, SCI has played a key role in renewing and strengthening important global relationships. Seeds of the sister city movement are sown due to the lengthy conflicts of WWII. The war devastated many cities in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, leaving millions dead and wounded.
Many early sister city relationships formed out of the post WWII aid programs to Western Europe. As Zinlinsky (1991: 5) pointed out, a number of war relief organizations emerged during and after WWII, e.g. Bundles for Britain, Russian War Relief, and American Aid to France, Inc. The early groundwork for post-war humanitarian aid efforts catalyzed the movement to forge linkages between North America and the stricken people of allied countries.
Sister Cities International (SCI) published its 50th anniversary book in 2006, Peace through People: 50 Years of Global Citizenship, with valuable primary historical documents of the first half-century (1956-2006) of sister city movement in the U.S. In this section, the information from the publication will be used to capture the historical background of sister city development in the U.S.
In the early stage of the sister city program, dozens of U.S. communities reached out to former battlefield enemies, Japanese and German cities and rebuilt their
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communities. Considering the hostile atmosphere of anti-Japanese fever in war-time America, their friendly embrace in the period was remarkable. After the 1960s, the rapid expanding program soon faced with new challenges, sister city leaders at local level decided to establish a national association, the Town Affiliation Association, thus incorporated on June 12, 1965 to assist the growing American sister cities entering the program and serve those already affiliated. SCI became a separate corporation in 1967 due to the growth and popularity of the sister city program in the U.S.
During the 1970s and the 1980s, series programs launched for youth and education, such as ‘school affiliation’ program and ‘We Agree’ workshops to help bringing students from around the globe together, these school-to-school linkages and global education initiatives are now known as student-exchange programs between sister cities. In addition to cultural and educational exchanges, the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) was established in 1977 to exchange technical expertise between the U.S. and affiliated communities in developing countries. (SCI, 2006: 78-82) As Zenlinsky (1991) pointed out, sister city movements initiated from the advanced countries, then spreaded to the developing countries and then the Third World. The motives of sister city activities in this period had diverted attention from seeking post-war reconciliation.
The U.S.–U.S.S.R. Sister Cities Conference was one of the notable events in the 1990s. Its second Conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio in September 12-13, 1991, brought 240 U.S. delegates with 210 counterparts from 65 communities and 11 republics within the Soviet Union. This unprecedented gathering was noted as largest-ever meeting of Soviet citizens in the U.S. (SCI, 2006: 145) Along with the development of globalization and various mutual facing issues in the global ecosystem, sister city conferences by region have been emerging after the 1990s. In
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addition to the U.S.–U.S.S.R. Sister Cities Conference, the first U.S.–Africa Sister Cities Conference was held in Washington D.C. in 1992 and the first Sino–U.S. Sister Cities Conference also set up in Beijing in 1995.
After the 2000s, sister city exchanges are diverse and enter the mature stage. The relationships that endured were generally based on cultural or educational cooperation that developed lasting friendships, and many cases related to humanitarian relief efforts could be found between sister cities. On September 11, 2001, the terrorist attacks hit New York and Washington D.C. and took nearly 3,000 lives. The government of Tokyo donated US$5 million to New York State, while Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members donated another US$50,000 to its sister city, New York City, affiliated since 1960. (SCI, 2006: 186) Another example is the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011, which brought a numerous U.S.–
Japan sister cities together. Responding to the destruction and lives lost in their Japanese counterparts, an emergency meeting was set up by more than 100 residents of Riverside, California for discussing how to get aid to Sendai, their sister city established since 1958. The New York Times article reported on this that “the funds raised in Riverside would be sent to Sendai City Hall instead of to international aid organizations to ensure that the money would be spent locally.” (Wollan, 2011) These cases again verified the spirit of sister city movement proposed by President Eisenhower, if one city ever needed help it could be more easily and unbureaucratically received from another city than, for example, from national aid programs.
With decades of affiliations building, sister city movements are not limited to the routine cultural and economic activities, the grass-root emergency aid and humane care are also widespread nowadays. It’s interesting that sister city movement in the U.S. seems to return to the mode of humanitarian aid of the post-war period.
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2.2 International Activities of Local Governments in the Global Arena
2.2.1 The Expanding Roles of Cities: Culture
Along with Globalization and evolution towards increasing international participation
Along with Globalization and evolution towards increasing international participation