Crisis of Multilateralism and Cities’ Helping Hand

Abstract This essay shows how cities are stepping into the role of nation-states and are efficiently cooperating with other cities, not only bilaterally but also multilaterally. There are clear symptoms of the crisis of multilateralism that have led cities to attempt to save or fix the multilateral system and solve global problems, notably the current COVID-19 pandemic. Can cities be regarded as a helping hand or as a fix for the multilateral system? With discourse analysis and formal-legal analysis, this article concludes that the answer to the question is positive – cities may help to fix or save the multilateral system.