Dr. Kihlgren Grandi is the founding director of the City Diplomacy Lab. He is a lecturer in City Diplomacy at Columbia Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE | Paris), Sciences Po – PSIA, and École Polytechnique.
He regularly advises international organizations, national governments, city networks, and municipalities on how to fully unfold the added value of city diplomacy.
Author of City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), he holds a dual PhD in Political Theory from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS, Rome).
Publications:
- Dall’internazionalizzazione subita a quella gestita? Diplomazia delle città, coesione territoriale e rigenerazione urbana in Europa, Urbanistica Informazioni 2023, 39, 25
- Branding, Diplomacy, and Inclusion: The Role of Migrant Cuisines in Cities’ Local and International Action, Societies 2023, 13, 151
- City Diplomacy: An Emerging Tool to Enhance Wellbeing in MENA Cities, IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook 2022
- How cities cooperate to address transnational challenges, in Brears, R.C. (ed.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
- For a new municipalism. From the pandemic crisis to the response of cities, Broken Cities. Re-composing eco-social cleavages for a new urban agenda, Fondazione Feltrinelli, 2021
- Combing Moral ‘Good’ with Self-interest: Cities as Public Diplomacy Actors, with Amiri, S., in Alexander, C. (ed.) The Frontiers of Public Diplomacy: Historical and Contemporary Boundaries, Routledge, 2021
- Diplomazia delle Città, Egea, 2021
- La diplomatie des villes au service de la cohésion économique, sociale et territorial, Raisonnance / Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF), March 1, 2021
- City diplomacy and the “glocal” skills to foster peace, Local Governments and a Culture of Peace, UCLG, March 2021
- Le siècle métropolitain, Manière de Voir n°175, Le Monde Diplomatique, February-March 2021
- City Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
- Sfida globale, soluzione locale? Governance partecipata e diplomazia delle città per uscire dalla crisi, About Cities, n°2/2020
- Vers un renforcement des liens entre collectivités territoriales françaises et coréennes, Cités Unies France, October 13, 2020
- Les villes au cœur des relations internationales, L’Union, August 31, 2020
- Diplomatie des métropoles et Covid-19, Eurasia Prospective, May 29, 2020
- Les villes, une alternative diplomatique à la gestion de la pandémie, Telos, May 24, 2020
- Il ruolo delle città nell’emergenza, AffarInternazionali, May 10, 2020
- Pandemia, relazioni internazionali e diplomazia delle città, Fondazione Feltrinelli, April 23, 2020
- A new season for cultural city branding, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, March 18, 2020
- Tra rabbia ed entusiasmo, le due internazionalizzazioni delle città francesi, Fondazione Feltrinelli, March 16, 2020
- Le nouveau rôle international des villes (et pourquoi il faut l’encourager), Terra Nova, March 13, 2020
- “Villes et communautés religieuses : potentiel d’un partenariat pour le développement durable”, Raisonnance, no. 12, October 2019
- “Et si le salut de l’Europe passait par les villes?”, L’Union, July 30, 2019
- “Quand le local et l’international « se parlent ». Le potentiel des réseaux internationaux des villes dans la projection de l’identité urbaine”, Raisonnance, no. 11, September 2018
- “Promoting diversity as a tool for urban cultural dynamism: Milan’s experience”, proceedings of the 2015 UNAOC Alumni Event Celebrating Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue through the Arts, Milan, July-August 2015
- “The Cross-National Coordination of Urban Food Policies in the Euro-Mediterranean Region: the Urban Food Policy Pact Initiative as a Model for Enhanced Food Security in the South Mediterranean Region”, in Building Sustainable Agriculture for Food Security in the Euro-Mediterranean Region, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2015
- “Sicurezza alimentare e urbanizzazione: le sfide”, AffarInternazionali, Istituto Affari Internazionali, June 8, 2015
- “I migranti, nuovi protagonisti della vita culturale milanese”, Buone Notizie, Corriere della Sera, November 12, 2014