5

An enigma lies at the beginning of this article. In December 2006, the mayor of Saint-Etienne, Michel Thiollière was elected as the “5th Best Mayor in the World” by the Internet Site City Mayors. Yet, no publicity was made locally around this award. Taking this anecdote as a starting point, this article deals with the motivations that can lead a city mayor to get involved in an urban international relationships policy (city twining, participation in cities networks, study trips, etc.). These activities provide both resources for the building up of a political legitimacy and for electoral control on the one hand, and resources in urban policymaking, to find out solutions to urban public problems on the other hand. Nevertheless, in a context of transformation of the process of legitimization of urban elected officials, the second kind of resources seems to be the one that is most sought in the involvement in international activities.