Local Governments Are Foreign Policy Actors, Too

Photo by Alex Azabache from Pexels

BY NINA HACHIGIAN

The deputy mayor of Los Angeles argues that breaking down the silos between foreign and domestic policy will make international affairs more relevant for middle-class Americans.

In our 2008 book, The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise, Mona Sutphen and I concluded that American foreign policy ought to prioritize security challenges that could harm Americans where they live. We cited climate change, terror attacks and a pandemic, which could emanate from the wet markets in southern China, as examples. We were not especially prescient—the security community knew a virus like COVID-19 was coming.

What I did not give any thought to at that time was the role of local governments in addressing these transnational challenges. My public sector work until then was varied—in three branches, in D.C. and overseas—but only federal. In my current position in the city of Los Angeles, I have come to appreciate that because humans are corporeal, they will have security needs, like testing and vaccines, that have to be met where they are physically located. States and cities are a bridge from national policy to individual Americans. On the domestic side—in housing, education and more—the connections between our capital city and the rest of America are well worn.

Local governments, though, are also active in international affairs, as Los Angeles’ example demonstrates. And this activity, if supported and leveraged at the federal level, can be of significant benefit in conducting an effective and successful foreign policy.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Nina Hachigian is Los Angeles’ first deputy mayor for international affairs, appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017. She served as the second U.S. ambassador to ASEAN in Jakarta from 2014 to 2017.

This article was originally published by the American Foreign Service Association.

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.