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1.5 Literature Review
In during research for this thesis, it is surprisingly to find out that there is relatively little academic attention paid to the topic. The definition of city diplomacy is blurring and lack theoretical debates. Most of academic researches focused on overall historical discussion, practical cases only mentioned sporadically as supplementary means and were conducted mainly in the western countries.
From the historical background perspectives, a number of studies (Cross, 2010;
O'Toole, 2001; Van der Pluij, 2007; Zelinsky, 1991) indicated that city diplomacy can be traced back to the city twinning in Europe and sister city movement in the U.S.
after the end of World War II. However, in addition to city-twinning or sister-city exchanges, cities’ other international participation, such as city-to-city cooperation with formal agreement or city-based international organization are not detailed discussed and even totally neglected in the academic researches.
The role of states and cities in foreign relations has also gradually changed after the World War II. Traditionally, foreign affairs are primarily a task of national government; however, globalization and the evolution towards increasing participation by civil society have brought non-state entities, e.g. federal states, provinces and cities onto the world stage. (La Porte, 2012:442) The notion of
‘paradiplomacy’ referring international relations conducted by subnational or regional governments with a view to promoting their own interests also has emerged in the 1980s. (Kuznetsov, 2014:26) However, due to the growing trend toward the internationalization of domestic issues, states and cities are not necessary in different diplomatic routes and should not be discussed separately. The paradiplomacy approach seems theoretically acceptable, in practice it appears to be a simplification of a more complex reality.
In view of this, Hocking (1993:9) proposed a new approach “multilayered diplomacy”
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interpreting the significance of different elements of the domestic and the international that are located in various political arenas, whether subnational, national or subnational actors, are blended together: a multilayered diplomatic environment.
The multilayered diplomatic environment approach broke the concept of
‘paradiplomacy’ which refers to state and city actors conducting different diplomatic policies. Van der Pluijm (2007:11) based on this pragmatic new approach to conceptualize the definition of city diplomacy as “the institution 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.” The better term to describe the relationship between state and city actors in reality may be ‘competitive cooperation’. Van der Pluijm’s definition on city diplomacy may be considered as an important breakthrough of the topic. He conceptualized city diplomacy with a precise theoretical construction and put special emphasis on cities’ thriving role in multilateral city networks.
Literatures dating back to the 1990s indicated an evolutionary structure of city diplomacy have increased emphasis on economic development as primary motivators.
Originally, the phenomenon of sister-city movement built on cultural understanding and peace promotion, now that the concept has gradually changed and there is robust debate over commercial exchanges in sister-city relationships, specific to the increasing economic cooperation such as Australia and New Zealand’s close sister-city ties with economic rising China after the 1990s. (Cremer, 2001; O’Toole, 2001; Mascitelli, B., & Chung, M., 2008) However, this ‘mercantilism’ is not universally applicable, Cross (2010:112) pointed out Japan focuses mainly on people-to-people exchanges, economic development is only a part of Japanese sister-city objectives, and is in a very macroeconomic sense. Besides, Japan’s commercial and industrial structure is characterized by capital-intensive big
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enterprises with high productivity and labor-intensive smaller companies with low productivity, the foreign firms are rarely through sister-city approach to achieve their commercial purposes. It seems that the motives of establishing sister-city tie between the West and the East are not the same and it is worth observing if NTC also follows the trend as the West to shift its emphasis to economic development.
‘Accountability’ in sister-city relationship is another widely discussed issue in the current literatures and as one of main concerns by local citizens and taxpayers. Local governments have received criticisms about their so-call ‘waste-money’ approach sister-city relationships over the last decade. Zelinsky (1991:3) pointed out sister-city relationship does not limit itself to carrying a single project but rather opens the way for shared activities included “the inevitable back-and-forth junkets involving dignitaries”. Jayne et al. (2011:32) also highlighted that hospitality and reciprocity are vital to understanding practices of sister-city relationship. In fact, hospitality is an important trust-built process, the greater cross-cultural understanding contribute to a sustain sister-city relationship. To this end, mayors, councilors and municipal officials are expected to justify these activities. O’Toole (2001:406) claimed that under such the pressure, short-term economic activities take precedence over long-term outcomes.
In many instances, sister-city relationships have been transformed into short-term economic returns through trade, tourism and to a lesser extent investment. However, the direct and indirect sister-city relationship outputs are difficult to be measured technically, those intangible and indirect achievements may not be easy to gain the full support from the city council and citizen.
In summary, relevant studies on city diplomacy are inadequate and practical cases on this theme are relatively fragmentary. The concept of city diplomacy has gradually from the parallel diplomatic routes between city and state to multilayered diplomatic environment approach. Besides, some studies indicate local governments have shifted
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their motives to economic consideration due to ‘accountability’ issue after the 1990s, only short-term exchanges convince citizens the necessity of city diplomacy.