http://doi.org/10.62220/j.ssbpa.2024.01.002
Shaoshan Zhong, Hongjing Yan, Junfei Teng
ABSTRACT
City diplomacy is actively engaged in transnationally coordinated efforts to address critical global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and terrorism. This phenomenon has garnered substantial scholarly attention within the fields of international relations, urban studies, and security studies. However, the pioneering initiatives of the mayors of Nagasaki in their Mayors for Peace campaign and related efforts to advocate for a nuclear-free world since the 1970s have been insufficiently examined in the context of city diplomacy research. This article, drawing extensively on archival research from Nagasaki, addresses a pivotal issue in the field: the profit of city diplomacy. The mayors of Nagasaki have consistently, sometimes jointly and sometimes individually, endeavored to establish their legitimacy at local, national, and international levels. Each register manifested through cooperation with the national government, confrontation with the national government, and collaboration with cities, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals outside Japan is relational and has involved distinct spatiotemporal reconfigurations. City diplomacy researchers have convincingly argued that the rise of city diplomacy symbolizes a structural transformation of the global order, where actors and issues transcend local, national, or global boundaries. How do cities participate in diplomacy? This article explores contemporary theories of city diplomacy and various aspects of International Relations theory by examining the case of Nagasaki’s city diplomacy. We recommend further investigation into Nagasaki’s diplomatic activities, including its involvement in the Mayors for Peace organization, its domestic public diplomacy initiatives, and its sister city relationships.
KEYWORDS
City diplomacy; Japan politic; Nagasaki city