Federalism has been described as having an echo in the US foreign policy process, especially through the US Senate, but also through the law and politics of the fifty states.  If it is an echo in the US, it is a banging drum in the EU.  Not only does Brussels negotiate, but so too does Berlin, Paris, London, Rome … not to mention Stockholm and Athens and Budapest.  India has been described as a “unitary government with federal dimensions,” but increasingly states and their chief ministers are becoming engaged on diplomatic affairs. 

 

Dr. William Antholis the managing director of Brookings and a former White House and State Department official, has experience in studying and practicing these issues over two decades in the US, Europe and India.  He is beginning a ten-week tour of China, where he is trying to gain a better understanding of how China’s center-province relations affect Chinese foreign policy.