Exploring East Asian Sustainable Governance Via Municipal International Cooperation
This paper begins with a look into the emergence of global public goods in a globalizing world and argues for the potential of Municipal International Cooperation (MIC) as an effective vehicle for rectifying the under-provision of global public goods. It continues with a review of the evolution, tools and issues of MIC. Next is an investigation of the conceptual evolution of ‘sustainable development’ as a powerful catchword in current MIC programs and some exemplary cases of MIC in pursuit of sustainable development. Finally, the paper ends with a discussion about the need for an MIC approach to East Asian Sustainable Governance in the years ahead. Our motto, therefore, perhaps should be “Cities of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your slums, your poverty and your military expendability.” On this note of modest long-run optimism, I had better conclude for fear that the pessimism of short-run catches up with us first.