The Sister Cities International program, which now benefits from the growing use of the Internet and lightning-quick e-mail, has its roots in another era, a decade after World War II.
The year was 1956, 11 years after the end of the war. Some American cities and towns already had begun sister city relationships abroad. But the idea got a big boost when President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a national initiative, the people-to-people program.
The searing experience of international conflict in World War II still was felt. Eisenhower said he hoped citizen diplomacy would foster ties at a grassroots level that might help prevent future world conflicts.
Eisenhower said the program “…is an important resource to the negotiations of governments in letting the people themselves give expression of their common desire for friendship, goodwill and cooperation for a better world for all.”
Even 41 years after the program got its start, Japan and Germany currently remain the countries with the most sister cities partnerships with U.S. municipalities.
The idea rapidly caught on around the United States. The program had been part of the National League of Cities. But in 1967, it evolved into the separate, not-for-profit organization, Sister Cities International.
Today, the organization has matched 1,200 U.S. cities, counties and states with 2,000 counterparts around the globe. In all, 123 countries participate. Some cities have more than one international partner.
The organization tries to match domestic and foreign cities that have something in common despite all their differences.
“Obviously, size is going to be a factor and similarities in terms of the economic base and terrain sometimes (enter into the equation),” said Richard Gerrard, associate director of Sister Cities International, based in Alexandria,Virginia.
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Participating communities pay dues to the Washington, D.C.-area organization based on population. Large cities pay about $1,200 a year, and towns of more than 50,000 pay about $4,000 annually, according to Gerrard. Small towns may pay as little as $130, he said.
That money goes to run the organization, which matches cities, provides guidance on how to set up programs and make them grow, and offers variety of scholarships and services.
Sister cities often trade visits among mayors, law enforcement officials, teachers, students and others. Families in the two communities often host foreign visitors when they come to town.
Though the program’s early founders probably couldn’t have imagined it, modern technology has given a high-tech boost to cities trying to forge a relationship across the ocean.
E-mail, in particular, has paved a new path of inexpensive, quick correspondence. In countries where mail can be slow and unreliable, and international telephone calls inconvenient and costly, computers are proving to be a way around those problems. Municipal governments sometimes talk to each other electronically, as do individual residents and students who participate in the cross-cultural exchanges.
Some sister cities have set up home pages, which Internet users can link to from the Sister Cities International web site.
“If your city over there has the equipment, then it’s a huge step up,” Gerrard said.
That, of course, is a big “if.” Northwest suburban Hoffman Estates is online and figured e-mail would be the ideal way to forge its growing ties with its French sister city, Angouleme. No such luck.
“They just don’t use the Internet much over there, so that hasn’t worked out so far,” said Hoffman Estates Mayor Mike O’Malley. Fax machines, however, have helped those sister cities stay up-to-date, along with traditional phone calls and mail.
In some less developed countries, the use of computers is even less common.
One thing that is common in sister city partnerships is a growing emphasis on promoting business ties, not only educational and cross-cultural exchanges.
Some municipalities have encountered suspicions that the exchanges amount to taxpayer-financed junkets. After all, some exchanges do turn out to be less productive than others. Many towns and cities now pay for the programs through fund raisers, private and corporate donations, along with a nominal contribution from the local coffers.
Chicago is one of the few cities nationwide to run a program using full-time paid staff of seven, backed by huge corporate contributions. While most suburbs use small fund raisers to raise the $5,000 or $6,000 they might need annually, Chicago started 1995–the latest year for which reports are available–with $411,000 in the bank. It raised another $218,000 during the year.
Although the program was originally started to encourage cultural exchanges, Chicago has increasingly used it to promote economic development. Julie Driscoll, director of Chicago’s program, says that is important to sell Sister Cities to the public.
“When you talk to taxpayers, they want to know that they are getting, but you have to look at the whole package,” she said.
But Driscoll acknowledged that cultural exchanges and building relationships is an important first step in developing business opportunities.
“You can’t do business without understanding the culture, so the relationship building is important,” she said. “You just can’t sit down with the Russians and sign a joint-venture agreement. You need to sit down first and drink vodka together.”
Chicago has established relationships with 17 cities and is expecting to sign an agreement with its 18th partner, Moscow, later this month.
Gerrard, of Sister Cities International, said it is primarily large cities that have used the program to promote trade, though he said that certainly wasn’t the reason the program was established.
“The sister city program serves a natural role in terms of fostering business ties,” he said. “Once you get to know each other over several years, trust comes into play, friendships develop and business begins to flow.
“But if a city is looking to base its relationships strictly on business, they are not going to survive because business is not in it for the long haul.”
If cultural and educational exchanges are the foundation of the program, there are cities that put economic development at the top of the list.
While Bloomington’s participation in sister cities probably wasn’t the reason Mitsubishi brought its plant to this Downstate community, the city’s mayor says he likes to think it played a role.
Jesse Smart says the city did its best to play up its relationship with Asakawa, Japan — Bloomington’s sister city for 35 years — while making its pitch to corporate officials.
“It was one of those intangibles,” Smart said of the Sister Cities factor. “I don’t know how much of a role it played, but we did use it to try to make them more comfortable that the Japanese culture was known and accepted here.”
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