I think we have to understand the new role of cities clearly to appreciate just how important they are in the world economy today. Cities are now the economic engines of nations. Briefly, in the last quarter of the twentieth century there was a complete transformation of the nation state model. Advances in telecommunications and information technology created a need for continual innovation and transparency in order to be competitive in such a changing world. Innovation is the natural domain of cities.
Cities are the places where ideas meet, synthesize and emerge as practical applications.
They are the natural frontier of the new economy. It has always been so. Prior to the early 20th century development of nation-states, history shows how fundamental cities have been in the human story. It is a role not likely to change too quickly. So, if cities are the command and control centres of the new world economic order, and not nations, it follows that they have to be as strong as they can be to meet the challenges of that role.