The world to come looks regular to bad. The end of multilateralism turns it again into an aggressive and violent place. In recent decades, some dared to proclaim, at the whim of the accelerated development of globalization, the advent of the end of the nation-state with much passion and some innocence. It seemed that the emergence of new forms of supranational governance or regional integration such as the European Union, China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the signing of Association Agreements between blocs or with third parties and the North American Free Trade Agreement, announced a new era based on multilateralism and economic and political cooperation that surpassed the logic solely of states. As they say in English, a win-win for everyone, or for a good part of the world. Greater economic integration through trade and investment that managed to reduce levels of poverty and global inequality, although we were very far from being satisfactory.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the beginning of the end of that model, and evaporated the good intentions of those of us who thought that cooperation would prevail over confrontation. The virus swept all that away in one fell swoop. It meant, first of all, the re-empowerment of governments and states accompanied by warlike language, the war against the virus. There were no partners or friends, the priority was to acquire sanitary material wherever it was, at whatever price was necessary and despite whoever it was. Despite everything, the European Union was able to articulate relatively quickly a cooperation system with a joint vaccine acquisition contract and launched the Next Generation, a set of temporary financial instruments endowed with 750,000 million euros designed to finance reforms and investments in member countries. Meanwhile, across the pond, Donald Trump governed in his first term, incubating an equally lethal new virus.
After a complex last five years focused on recovering from the effects of COVID-19 and the explosion of war on European soil with Russia's invasion of Ukraine or the atrocious massacres in Israel and Palestine, the collaborative and peaceful world dissolves like a sugar cube in coffee. Trump's return to the White House has certified the demise of the open world and battered multilateralism. The world is once again a "fast and furious" place. Trump and his deregulatory, protectionist, and tariff hyperactivism, coupled with his neighborhood bully declaratory verbiage, represents a political, economic, and geopolitical tsunami whose consequences we do not yet know. In one fell swoop, the transatlantic axis has vanished, and what awaits us is increased trade tensions, an increase in public investments in the defense industry, the strengthening and control of strategic industries and companies, the struggle to access critical materials, and prioritizing strategic autonomy to protect supply chains and food security.
The geopolitical agenda seems to be taking the helm of our lives. However, we have the opportunity and the need to counteract it with a political, economic, and social model that does not renounce the idea of progress. Appealing to an old phrase from the legendary Willy Brandt, "a situation becomes desperate when you start to think it is desperate." We cannot fall into defeatism and must work to find different and unique solutions. One of them is to re-emphasize and activate the potential of city diplomacy in all its dimensions.
A few days ago, Daniel Passerini, mayor of the Argentine city of Córdoba, rightly said that when relations between countries fail in the world, relations between cities do work, because that is where people live and where transformations are visualized. And that is precisely what needs to be activated as an alternative to a world in confrontation, the potential of small-scale politics. A recent foresight report on 2025 by Bank of America looked beyond geopolitics and proclaimed that in the next five years, micro-developments will gain prominence as the pace of technological disruption accelerates thanks to the widespread adoption of AI in businesses and society.
The world is once again moving towards quantitative easing, in which we will again see strong actions from governments and central banks and probably new inflationary shocks. That is why, during the next five years, micro policies, that is, proximity policies, will become more important. State governments will be very busy with geopolitical agendas, and it will be up to mayors and local and regional governments to step forward to protect and care for people by deploying a new policy of affections and security in the broadest sense of the word. Likewise, cities must be the refuge of the values of an open and free world in the face of the rise of a populism that feeds on uncertainty, inequality, and fear of phenomena such as immigration. Cities, and especially some cities, must once again be refuge cities, both for people, goods and services, and for values and narratives of the open and inclusive world.
City diplomacy once again makes full sense, and this time, with a clear and distinct purpose, the preservation of peaceThe task is neither easy nor simple, but it is unavoidable. Cities and mayors have the responsibility to take a step forward. Particularly those cities that are the global reference cities of the free world such as Paris, London, New York, Boston, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Tokyo or Sydney, to name a few. City diplomacy once again makes full sense, and this time, with a clear and distinct purpose, the preservation of peace, coexistence, collaboration, and commercial exchange between peoples and societies. In that field, Barcelona enjoys an exceptional positioning.The city is the world capital of city networks, hosting the headquarters, among others, of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the World Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis), the Ibero-American Center for Urban Strategic Development (CIDEU), and the International Association of Educating Cities.
In addition, Barcelona has the recognition, positioning, and a legacy as an open, diverse, and inclusive city that legitimizes it for this, and a special emotional connection with the world. An asset that must be mobilized together with other reference cities to create (symbolically) the League of Free Cities. Free from toxic and authoritarian leaders. Free from hatred and warmongering language. Free to think, create, and express our ideas and beliefs. Free to fearlessly reject immigrant deportation policies or the cancellation policies proclaimed by populists and the far-right. In short, it is time for intelligent and committed activism from cities. We may not be able to avoid geopolitical confrontation, but we must propose an alternative model of progress because the world needs it.