A GLOBAL PANDEMIC AND THE CASE FOR SUBNATIONAL DIPLOMACY

BY KAREN RICHARDSON

Over the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal government’s isolationist and, at times, halting response has thrust counties, cities, and state and local elected leaders onto the frontlines of the pandemic. Localities have stepped in to fill the leadership void that left cities to bear most of the brunt in slowing the spread of the virus and to project American leadership among the international community.

These subnational actors have defied conventional wisdom that diplomacy resides strictly within the province of the U.S. Department of State. Indeed, the trend toward subnational diplomacy—the involvement of provincial/state and local leaders in foreign affairs—over the years has provided state and local leaders with the infrastructure and political goodwill to meet an unprecedented moment where their critical value as diplomatic actors is undeniable.

In times of great international crisis—the Zika virus, the H1N1 flu, Ebola, or natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti—the international community has looked to the United States to drive international coordination and response efforts, mobilize the global community, and provide foreign assistance.

Yet for the first time since 1945, the U.S. federal government indisputably has not taken the lead in addressing the global health crisis. To the contrary, the president announced an intent to terminate the United States’ relationship with the World Health Organization and to skip a virtual global summit co-hosted by Italy, planned to coordinate funding of vaccines and treatments to fight COVID-19. The international community has accordingly begun looking to others to fill the void.

In the current climate, subnational actors have taken on a more robust and urgent role, taking matters into their own hands.

On the domestic front, the systemic failures, lack of planning, testing delays, and a willful refusal to confront the outbreak aggressively have paved the way for cities to assume the leadership mantel as a matter of necessity, pragmatism, and as a reflection of the growing trend where cities play more significant roles in global affairs. The United States’ lagging response, however, has culminated in a call for subnational leadership at a more robust level.

Cities and counties are and have historically been the epicenter of infectious diseases and there is precedent for their central role in responding to pandemics. In the current climate, subnational actors have taken on a more robust and urgent role, taking matters into their own hands. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s C40 Cities mayoral network, currently chaired by the mayor of Los Angeles, brought together mayors from around the world in the early stages of the effort to share best practices in responding to the pandemic. Bloomberg Philanthropies has launched the COVID-19 local response initiative to help mayors respond to the pandemic.

The private and non-profit sectors have also been engaged. Mastercard’s City Possible Network, for instance, brings together municipal decision-makers, among others, around the globe to exchange response strategies in their own communities. In response to a call from local governments for more information on how to protect their communities, experts in disease outbreaks and former public health officials have also partnered to produce the COVID-Local and the Frontline Guide for local decision-makers. And established organizations like the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the Global Resilience Cities Network, and Cities for All have prioritized the most pressing problem at hand.

The trend toward subnational diplomacy that began over a decade ago signaled a preparation and readiness for this moment. Indeed, foreign policy experts and practitioners have been tracking the evolving global influence of subnational actors in confronting global challenges faced by the United States and other nations. Throughout history, they have been critical players in national security and foreign policy issues such as human rights, immigration, climate change, and trade initiatives.

One of the many lessons of this pandemic is that subnational actors like cities and non-governmental actors have proven they, collectively, are the indispensable actors that have contributed significantly to combating the global crisis of the century.

This was the case in the Obama administration, where subnational diplomacy was considered an essential foreign policy tool, with state and local officials working with the State Department and other federal agencies on priority issues such as climate mitigation initiatives and trade agreements (e.g. TPP and human rights, among other issues). The administration, in the first term, created the first-ever special representative for global intergovernmental affairs to build peer-to-peer relationships between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. state and local officials, and their foreign counterparts.

This work continued into the second term in the Public Affairs Bureau in a department I led as a Deputy Assistant Secretary. The efforts of this department, together with other State Department offices (e.g. the Office of Policy Planning) and the White House, culminated in climate change commitments and agreements memorialized in conferences such as 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the 2015 U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit and the 2016 U.S.-China Climate-Smart/Low Carbon Cities Summit.

State and city level trade delegations, including Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 2015 trip to China and former Governor Martin O”Malley’s trip to India, demonstrated the growing development of international trade and investment strategies at the state and city level. At the same time, major cities like Los Angeles and New York have created international affairs offices to focus on “connecting the local to the global” and deepening their foothold in the international arena through dialogue with their international counterparts.

One of the many lessons of this pandemic is that subnational actors like cities and non-governmental actors have proven they, collectively, are the indispensable actors that have contributed significantly to combating the global crisis of the century. To be sure, cities are not monolithic and there are limits to the power that city diplomacy and broader subnational efforts can wield on their own.

The collective efforts of those outside of the federal government, however, continue to reinforce the notion that subnational diplomacy is an increasingly powerful and necessary tool for international engagement, especially in times of global crises.

_______________________

Karen Richardson is a Pacific Council member who served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, and worked at the White House as Associate Director in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.