ABSTRACT
Traditional macro-approaches to politics were challenged when scholars and public intellectuals began to question the strength of the state and the relevance of its behavior. In some instances, national urban policy is being formulated to guide such transitions, in others, national governments are silent and policy and structural reform in cities is occurring at sub-national levels, where new forms of metropolitan governance are being driven from the ground up. These movements and transitions are creating new frameworks for political authority that have critical impact on future forms of global governance. In the contemporary era of globalization, cities and urban regions are underrepresented as sites of power in much of the disciplinary literature produced by scholars in international relations, environmental and regional studies, and foreign policy analysis. Researchers need to redress this gap by integrating several disciplines to review how the global and national position of cities is in transition.
