Confronted with the tangible impacts of global challenges such as climate change, economic insecurity, mass migration and pandemics, local governments have increased the volume and scope of their international activities. In Australia, local governments are utilising city diplomacy to increasingly engage with regional and transnational networks and deepen peer-to-to-peer and multilevel governmental partnerships, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. While the liberal international fervour of mayors running the world may have been tempered by a resurgence in state power and uncertain geopolitical conditions, what remains are local governments that are increasing enmeshed in international engagements, frequently without the resourcing, training and institutional support to effectively maximise these efforts. Despite these limitations, this paper presents evidence from a biennial global survey of local governments that city diplomacy is a professionalising field, with many local governments increasing the expertise and sophistication by which they are executing multifaceted international engagement strategies. This has critical implications for Australian local governments which have generally lagged international peers in building the capacity to deliver effective and impactful city diplomacy. Part of this professionalisation involves the broadening and deepening of direct engagement with national foreign policy apparatuses. Globally, national governments are changing their approaches to how they manage subnational diplomacy, with a spectrum of responses emerging in different jurisdictions, ranging from laissez faire to restrictive. The Australian Government has perhaps the most restrictive regime for subnational diplomacy governance in any democracy through Australia’s Foreign Relations scheme. Despite this, in practice, the Commonwealth has increased their attentiveness and interest in city diplomacy efforts yet still mainly focuses on reporting and compliance as opposed to more supportive regimes seen in some other democracies. This paper draws from an international survey of city diplomacy to contrast the professionalisation of these practices internationally, when compared with Australia. Doing so, it raises critical questions about the diplomatic legitimacy of Australian local governments and the scope and potential for local government to contribute to and enhance Australia’s foreign policy, particularly in the Asia-Pacific.
