City-twinning as local foreign policy

Abstract

The paper explores the unfolding of city-twinning between Kirkenes and Nickel as two rather small and peripheral northern cities. They are arguably of scholarly interest already in the sense that their bonding challenges rather profoundly the divisive impact of the Norwegian-Russian border. It is also notable that the initiative did not emerge with the cities themselves; it was fi rst and foremost coined by the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers testifying not only to changes in the nature of the two states themselves and their approach to borders and bordering but also to a new way of conducting foreign policy with Kirkenes and Nickel being encouraged to join in through their twinning. It appears more generally that cities have acquired considerable liberty in choosing their own mode of constitution and probing the case of Kirkenes and Nickel thus off ers an opportunity to explore how that liberty is being utilized and with what consequences.