State and local foreign trade restrictions represent the convergence of two main threads of the globalization of the U.S. experience, and raise a serious challenge to the historic allocation of foreign policy responsibility to the federal government. The internationalization of state and local economies is the first thread. The second is the heightened efforts of state, city and county governments to play a role in foreign affairs and foreign policy decisions. Where they meet finds states and cities using their new-found international economic leverage to influence not only United States’ foreign policy, but the domestic policies of foreign nations as well. At a time when economic sanctions are emerging as the weapons of choice in maintaining international order, these state and local efforts threaten to undermine the authority and effectiveness of United States’ foreign policy.
