Urban Foreign Policy and Domestic Dilemmas Insights from Swiss and EU City-regions

City-regions have gained economic and political power in the process of globalization. Many of them use this power to develop their own international activities. This book investigates why city-regions go global and the consequences of their newly gained self-confidence on the international scale. The book analyzes Swiss and European Union city-regions' international activities with seven in-depth case studies. The book shows that the local economic setting, and the political response in developing international activities, are closely linked. Not only has urban politics changed due to its international dimension, but also the interplay between the core city, the agglomeration communities, the regional, the national, and European Union levels. Understanding the role of the European Union in city-regions' international activities is crucial for comprehending recent trends in urban governance, and in this book, Nico van der Heiden has unveiled key factors in this process.