Interesting look at the foreign policy responsibilities of the mayor of NYC:

While Mamdani does not have any direct oversight over the city’s comptroller, he still may try to limit where the city spends its money, pressing for the sale of foreign-owned bonds and investments.

On these points, Mamdani will likely continue working with other cities across the United States and around the world, such as through the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, which leverages private funding to help cities become carbon neutral. New York’s inclusion in the alliance helps the city meet global climate goals at a time when the United States has pulled back internationally on its commitments.

Launched in 2014 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cities for Action is a group of 200 mayors and county executives from U.S. cities that pushes the federal government to enact more pro-immigrant federal policies. Expect Mamdani to continue participation in these organizations (his platform calls for continuing NYC’s status as a sanctuary city) but also to build new city-led coalitions around issues important to him and central to his campaign, such as worker rights, affordable housing, and education.

Mamdani might also look to pare back New York’s existing diplomatic efforts. The New York Police Department has its own international component, with 14 detectives from the department embedded in agencies around the world, working with its global counterparts. Since Mamdani’s critical view of the police department is already well known, he may look to cut some of the department’s international cooperation agreements.

I’d be pretty surprised if Mamdani tries that last one, at least not without the consent and support of the NYPD… I can’t imagine that he wants to pick that fight early in his term. BTW, back when I was at the War College in 2019 I visited NYC with the student body. The colonels and LTCs were divided into teams of about ten and dispatched to different parts of the city to have conversations with different city organizations, corporations, etc. One group visited the New York Police Department and was told, among other things, that the NYPD had an operative on the spot at the Christchurch mosque shooting… because it was considered to be a “dodgy” mosque with some New York connections. It hadn’t occurred to me that the NYPD had a transnational intelligence gathering arm, but there we are.

Anyway, really brought home that a lot of subnational politics in the United States has foreign policy implications, which is a theme I’ve been interested in ever since.

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