Multinationals on trial

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H.S. Kehal

"China and India have both received a great deal of attention from foreign investors. Both have been at the receiving end of a large volume of foreign capital investment in their economies and both of them have set out on the path of economic reform. However, there are acute differences in the implementation of these reforms : China made rapid progress in the manufacture of high-technology products while India progressed more in the development of high technology. India's share among the developing countries in terms of attracting foreign direct investment is only 1.7 per cent compared with China's 17 per cent. This book explores the contrasts between China and India in attracting and utilizing such investment, and related issues, and discusses the challenges faced by foreign investors."--BOOK JACKET

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Jean Bethke Elshtain

Jean Bethke Elshtain challenges a powerful strand in western political thinking that separates the political and ethical realms. This is manifest above all in the claim that although the rule of justice might pertain between citizens, force is the ultimate arbiter between states and would-be states. But this claim fails to capture the many complex ways that political bodies deal with one another through norms and rules and not simply by force. Elshtain captures this alternative dimension by examining two dominant currents in international politics: sovereignty and nationalism. She shows the ways in which the historic understanding of sovereignty was deeply dependent on theological concepts, and demonstrates that much of contemporary life is marked by the mapping of concepts of sovereignty onto our understanding, not just of states but of persons. Over the years, many experts predicted confidently that the power of nationalism would abate as "rationalism" and "internationalism" spread. Elshtain explains why this prediction was flawed and accounts for the emergence of today's "new nationalism," the political passion of our time. She asks, Knowing the terrible cost of nationalistic excess, is there a defensible version of national identity and loyalty? With the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, Elshtain argues "yes." In her provocative epilogue, Elshtain asks whether there is room for forgiveness in international politics, and concludes on the speculative and hopeful note that ways might be found to break repetitive cycles of vengeance.

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Iain Banks

Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations. Kate's job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firm's secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arm's length. -- Publisher description.

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Frederick Stapenhurst

During the 1970s and the 1980s, political risk analysis was increasingly undertaken by multinational corporations around the world. Recent developments in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, the Gulf and elsewhere have highlighted the need for multinational corporations to undertake such analysis and incorporate it into their decision-making. This book traces the emergence of the political risk assessment function in multinational corporations. From its genesis as an integral component of corporate environmental scanning, through its development as a distinct academic sub-discipline and separate corporate function, to its 'shake-out' phase of the late-1980s, this book critically examines the need for, and methodology of, corporate political risk assessment. Special attention is placed on the comparative analysis of political assessments in American, Canadian and West European corporations. Of particular interest are sections on country case-studies and corporate case-studies. The first highlights political risks as they were perceived by corporations doing business in Iran, Mexico, Poland, Portugal and South Korea, and reviews risk-management strategies adopted by particular corporations. The latter considers the organization and structure of the political risk assessment function in nine multinational corporations.