A Different View on City Diplomacy: Mid-sized Baltic Towns and Their International Contacts

Abstract

Recent developments in the study of city diplomacies have kept small and mid-sized towns mostly outside of focus. This robs the field of an opportunity to consider the international activities of most cities and networks of cities, and deprives us from a reflection on the reasons why most cities would feel a need to develop their international outreach, and on the ways they would do it. Studying the city diplomacy of small cities reminds us of the depth of practices and of the variety of realities blanketed under the notion of city diplomacy – variety both in geographical but also in chronological terms. From the point of view of these small and mid-sized towns, city diplomacy appears subtly different than from the vintage point of great cities. This essay will reflect on this through the example of Turku, a mid-sized town in the Baltic Sea region. It aims to show that, in a field concentrated on big cities, studying mid-sized cities bring the same returns as studying small states: a wider understanding of the way foreign relations work on a daily basis.