Bio
Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe
Founding Director, City Diplomacy Lab
Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is a leading expert in city diplomacy and the Founding Director of the City Diplomacy Lab, a UNECE Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Development. He lectures at Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe, Sciences Po–PSIA, École Polytechnique, and Columbia University in Paris, and is the author of
City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), the field's founding handbook, as well as a wider body of academic and policy publications that have helped shape the discipline.
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 global governance to the United Nations and UNESCO, and currently serves as Scientific Coordinator of Urban7, the engagement group representing cities within the G7 process. He has also coordinated cities' collective advocacy at major international gatherings such as the UN Forum of Mayors, World Urban Forums, and COP summits.
Lorenzo has designed and led numerous training programs for municipal leaders and curates international knowledge-exchange initiatives with partners including UNEP, UNHCR, WHO, GIZ, and Eurocities.
He holds a dual PhD in Political Studies from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris) and LUISS Guido Carli (Rome).
For a full list of publications,
see personal website.
Courses
- City Diplomacy
Across today's interconnected world, cities have emerged as pivotal actors in international affairs. People, ideas, capital, goods, and services circulate through global networks whose hotspots are urban; cities serve as the principal sites of innovation, research, creativity, and entrepreneurship, while standing simultaneously on the frontline of the most pressing geopolitical, economic, social, cultural, and environmental challenges of our time.
Over the past several decades, a growing number of municipalities worldwide have risen to prominence as influential players in international relations. From economic, cultural, and scientific cooperation to sustainable development, public health, and humanitarian assistance, cities and their transnational networks have been deploying informal, flexible, and increasingly effective instruments of diplomacy.
This 2-credit course introduces graduate students to the field of city diplomacy through a comparative and interdisciplinary lens combining international relations, urban studies, area studies, international economics, and international law. Drawing on the emerging scholarly literature and a curated selection of primary sources from cities and international actors across all world regions, the six intensive sessions examine the core features, governance arrangements, tangible impact, and ongoing evolution of city diplomacy. The closing session, dedicated to the international engagement of Bologna, anchors the broader theoretical and comparative content in the host city of SAIS Europe.
