Inter-Regional Cooperative Networking: Trends and Case Analysis

Toward the turn of the 21st century, the rise of local governments unto international scene has been witnessed. In spite of the relatively short history, the role of local governments in international society underwent an evolutionary process at a rapid pace: from bilateral to multilateral. Bilateral cooperation, the traditional form of local cooperation is already widespread with the emergence of the age of globalization. In these days, more and more governments seek a new way to cooperate with international partners by forming a multilateral agency. The paper aims at analyzing such a new type of international cooperation by local governments as multilateral cooperation. It first analyzes the evolutionary process of international cooperation by local governments in Chapter Two. Then, an in-depth study is attempted to describe and evaluate the best-practice case example of multilateral cooperation of local governments in Korea, the experiences of the Gangwon province in building international cooperation networks in East Asia. As a conclusion, the paper identifies problems arisen in the process of implementation and proposes strategies to promote multilateral cooperation movement for other local governments by illustrating the experiences in management of multilateral cooperative networks.