Global Political Cities as Actors in Twenty-First Century International Affairs

Amidst this emphasis on the role of the state in both domestic and international affairs, the study of cities and their broader political-economic functions has been seriously neglected—a bias that we intend in this paper to redress. We develop here the concept of the “global political city”—a broad community, with complex non-governmental socio-economic dimensions, that nevertheless serves as an important arena for political transactions. After elaborating the general concept, we apply it concretely in the case of Washington, D.C., and suggest potential applications elsewhere in the world, noting the particular significance of the “strategic information complex” typically evolving in such cities as a source of international influence.