The Geopolitics of Cities. How City Diplomacy Is Reshaping Power, Risk, and Global Governance
hosted by Professor
Renaud Dehousse
Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi
Director, City Diplomacy Lab
Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is a leading expert in city diplomacy and the Founding Director of the City Diplomacy Lab. He lectures at Sciences Po–PSIA, École Polytechnique, and Columbia University in Paris, and is the author of City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), the first handbook dedicated to the field.
His work explores how cities and local governments address global and regional challenges such as climate change, migration, rising inequality, and geopolitical tensions. He has delivered policy recommendations on multilevel governance to the United Nations and UNESCO, and regularly coordinates cities' collective advocacy at major international gatherings, including the UN Forum of Mayors, World Urban Forum, G7, and COP summits.
Grandi has designed and led numerous training programs for municipal leaders and curates international knowledge-exchange initiatives with partners such as UNEP, UNHCR, WHO, GIZ, and Eurocities. A multilingual author and speaker, his work has been featured on major academic and policy platforms. He holds a dual PhD in Political Studies from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and LUISS Guido Carli (Rome).
Publications:
https://www.citydiplomacylab.net/lorenzo-kihlgren-grandi/
