The City Diplomacy Lab is an unprecedented alliance between scholars and practitioners of cities’ international action. In its capacity as a UNECE Center of Excellence, it deploys a multi-disciplinary methodology to expand the theoretical and practical understanding of city diplomacy and advise its evolution.
The Lab’s primary output consists of:
- Research: The Lab provides much-needed theoretical framing, reliable data, and comparative analyses of the vast array of bilateral and multilateral city actions and campaigns.
- Education and Training: By combining theory with empirical evidence, the Lab trains university students and municipal, national, and international officers in matters of city diplomacy.
- Events: The Lab organizes a wide range of initiatives aimed at advancing the understanding and dissemination of city diplomacy as a tool for sustainable urban development.
To fulfill its triple vocation, the Lab adopts a three-layered governance model:
- The Management: formed by an international and experienced staff of city diplomacy researchers and professionals, it designs and implements the Lab’s activities. In its activities, the Management benefits from the valuable collaboration of a group of highly qualified Associate Fellows.
- The Advisory Board: formed by key city diplomacy actors, it supports the Lab and participates in defining its action.
- The Scientific Committee: formed by distinguished external scholars, advises and assesses all research and teaching conducted at the Lab.
The Lab was founded in September 2021 at historic Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Centers | Paris’ headquarters.