The UN and Transnational Corporations: From Code of Conduct to Global Compact

by Tagi Sagafi-nejad, John H. Dunning

Overview

Are transnational corporations (TNCs) and foreign direct investment beneficial or harmful to societies around the world? Since the birth of the United Nations more than 60 years ago, these questions have been major issues of interest and involvement for UN institutions. What have been the key ideas generated by the UN about TNCs and their relations with nation-states? How have these ideas evolved and what has been their impact? This book examines the history of UN engagement with TNCs, including the creation of the UN Commission and Centre on Transnational Corporations in 1974, the failed efforts of these bodies to craft a code of conduct to temper the revealed abuses of TNCs, and, with the advent of globalization in the 1980s, the evolution of a more cooperative relationship between TNCs and developing countries, resulting in the 1999 Global Compact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253220127
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	10/16/2008
Series:	United Nations Intellectual History Project Series
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tagi Sagafi-nejad is the Radcliffe Killam Distinguished Professor of International Business and Director of the Ph.D. International Business Administration at Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas. He is author of Controlling International Technology Transfer: Issues, Perspectives, and Implications and Technology Exports from Developing Countries: The Case of Egypt.

John H. Dunning is Emeritus Professor of International Business at the University of Reading, UK, and State of New Jersey Emeritus Professor of International Business at Rutgers University. He has authored, co-authored, or edited 42 books on the economics of international direct investment and the multinational enterprise, and on industrial and regional economics.

Table of Contents

List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables
Series Editors' Foreword Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss
Preface & Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction
1. Ideas and Institutions Relevant to Foreign Investment and TNCs Prior to World War II
2. The Early Post-World War II Era: From the Golden Years of FDI to the Incipient Rise of Economic Nationalism
3. The 1970s: Gathering Storm
4. The Group of Eminent Persons: The Eye of the Hurricane
5. The Commission and the Centre, New York Years, 1974-1992
6. New York to Geneva: The UNCTAD Years
7. World Investment Report Series: 1991-2005
8. Other Members of the UN Galaxy: The Constellation
9. The Legacy and Future
Notes
Appendix 1: Organizational Diagram of UNCTC at its Inception, 1974
Appendix 2: From New York (UNCTC) to Geneva (DITE): Leadership
Index
About the Authors
About the United Nations Intellectual History Project

What People are Saying About This

"This volume in the 'United Nations Intellectual History Project Series' rescues from the memory hole an account of initiatives and ideas generated by the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (1974-92). The book traces how proposals for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s gave way to a shift in the 1980s to greater pragmatism and eventual absorption of the Centre into the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). One chapter recounts the controversy over the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in ending South African apartheid. Sagafi-nejad, an expert on technology transfer and foreign investment, collaborated with Dunning, a world authority on TNCs, to produce a careful, thorough work with unique content. Few UN histories say much about UN economic projects, and fewer mention TNCs. UNCTAD's Beyond Conventional Wisdom in Development Policy: An Intellectual History of UNCTAD 1964-2004 (2004) briefly discusses the UNCTC and TNCs, and John Toye and Richard Toye's The UN and Global Political Economy (CH, Dec'04, 42-2330) is a more exciting intellectual history of related (but not identical) economic issues. This new volume is a must for graduate libraries . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. —Choice"

M. Larudee

This volume in the 'United Nations Intellectual History Project Series' rescues from the memory hole an account of initiatives and ideas generated by the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (1974-92). The book traces how proposals for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s gave way to a shift in the 1980s to greater pragmatism and eventual absorption of the Centre into the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). One chapter recounts the controversy over the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in ending South African apartheid. Sagafi-nejad, an expert on technology transfer and foreign investment, collaborated with Dunning, a world authority on TNCs, to produce a careful, thorough work with unique content. Few UN histories say much about UN economic projects, and fewer mention TNCs. UNCTAD's Beyond Conventional Wisdom in Development Policy: An Intellectual History of UNCTAD 1964-2004 (2004) briefly discusses the UNCTC and TNCs, and John Toye and Richard Toye's The UN and Global Political Economy (CH, Dec'04, 42-2330) is a more exciting intellectual history of related (but not identical) economic issues. This new volume is a must for graduate libraries . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. —Choice

Indiana University - Alan M. Rugman

A masterly contribution to the history of thought in the new but influential field of international business.

M. Larudee]]>

This volume in the 'United Nations Intellectual History Project Series' rescues from the memory hole an account of initiatives and ideas generated by the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (1974-92). The book traces how proposals for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s gave way to a shift in the 1980s to greater pragmatism and eventual absorption of the Centre into the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). One chapter recounts the controversy over the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in ending South African apartheid. Sagafi-nejad, an expert on technology transfer and foreign investment, collaborated with Dunning, a world authority on TNCs, to produce a careful, thorough work with unique content. Few UN histories say much about UN economic projects, and fewer mention TNCs. UNCTAD's Beyond Conventional Wisdom in Development Policy: An Intellectual History of UNCTAD 1964-2004 (2004) briefly discusses the UNCTC and TNCs, and John Toye and Richard Toye's The UN and Global Political Economy (CH, Dec'04, 42-2330) is a more exciting intellectual history of related (but not identical) economic issues. This new volume is a must for graduate libraries . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. —Choice

Rutgers University - Farok J. Contractor

Ten thousand books on the amorphous term 'globalization' have failed to analyze what this landmark volume delivers—the institutional 'bricks and mortar' that undergird our planetary economy.

Harvard Business School - Louis T. Wells

This book is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the evolution of attitudes toward foreign direct investment in the developing world over the past 50 years.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume in the 'United Nations Intellectual History Project Series' rescues from the memory hole an account of initiatives and ideas generated by the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (1974-92). The book traces how proposals for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s gave way to a shift in the 1980s to greater pragmatism and eventual absorption of the Centre into the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). One chapter recounts the controversy over the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in ending South African apartheid. Sagafi-nejad, an expert on technology transfer and foreign investment, collaborated with Dunning, a world authority on TNCs, to produce a careful, thorough work with unique content. Few UN histories say much about UN economic projects, and fewer mention TNCs. UNCTAD's Beyond Conventional Wisdom in Development Policy: An Intellectual History of UNCTAD 1964-2004 (2004) briefly discusses the UNCTC and TNCs, and John Toye and Richard Toye's The UN and Global Political Economy (CH, Dec'04, 42-2330) is a more exciting intellectual history of related (but not identical) economic issues. This new volume is a must for graduate libraries . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. —Choice"—M. Larudee, Mount Holyoke College, June 2009

". . . a careful, thorough work with unique content . . . This new volume is a must for graduate libraries. . . . Highly recommended.June 2009"—Choice

"[This book] helps unravel the complexity and deepens understanding of the role the United Nations played in promoting an understanding of TNCs (transnational corporations) and FDI (foreign direct investment). This is a unique book . . . . Simply put, the book is well written and makes for interesting reading. No scholar devoted to the global economy should be without it.Vol. LIV.2 Fall 2009"—Edward Nissan, The University of Southern Mississippi

"This book is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the evolution of attitudes toward foreign direct investment in the developing world over the past 50 years."—Louis T. Wells, Harvard Business School

"A masterly contribution to the history of thought in the new but influential field of international business."—Alan M. Rugman, Indiana University

"Ten thousand books on the amorphous term 'globalization' have failed to analyze what this landmark volume delivers—the institutional 'bricks and mortar' that undergird our planetary economy."—Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers University

From the Publisher

. . . a careful, thorough work with unique content . . . This new volume is a must for graduate libraries. . . . Highly recommended.June 2009

Choice

[This book] helps unravel the complexity and deepens understanding of the role the United Nations played in promoting an understanding of TNCs (transnational corporations) and FDI (foreign direct investment). This is a unique book . . . . Simply put, the book is well written and makes for interesting reading. No scholar devoted to the global economy should be without it.Vol. LIV.2 Fall 2009

The Universityof Southern Mississippi - Edward Nissan

This volume in the 'United Nations Intellectual History Project Series' rescues from the memory hole an account of initiatives and ideas generated by the UN's Centre on Transnational Corporations (1974-92). The book traces how proposals for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s gave way to a shift in the 1980s to greater pragmatism and eventual absorption of the Centre into the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). One chapter recounts the controversy over the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in ending South African apartheid. Sagafi-nejad, an expert on technology transfer and foreign investment, collaborated with Dunning, a world authority on TNCs, to produce a careful, thorough work with unique content. Few UN histories say much about UN economic projects, and fewer mention TNCs. UNCTAD's Beyond Conventional Wisdom in Development Policy: An Intellectual History of UNCTAD 1964-2004 (2004) briefly discusses the UNCTC and TNCs, and John Toye and Richard Toye's The UN and Global Political Economy (CH, Dec'04, 42-2330) is a more exciting intellectual history of related (but not identical) economic issues. This new volume is a must for graduate libraries . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. —Choice

M. Larudee

"A masterly contribution to the history of thought in the new but influential field of international business." —Alan M. Rugman, Indiana University

Alan M. Rugman

"This book is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the evolution of attitudes toward foreign direct investment in the developing world over the past 50 years." —Louis T. Wells, Harvard Business School

Louis T. Wells

"Ten thousand books on the amorphous term 'globalization' have failed to analyze what this landmark volume delivers—the institutional 'bricks and mortar' that undergird our planetary economy." —Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers University

Farok J. Contractor

"[This book] helps unravel the complexity and deepens understanding of the role the United Nations played in promoting an understanding of TNCs (transnational corporations) and FDI (foreign direct investment). This is a unique book.... Simply put, the book is well written and makes for interesting reading. No scholar devoted to the global economy should be without it." —Edward Nissan, The University of Southern Mississippi, AMERICAN ECONOMIST, Vol. LIV.2 Fall 2009

— Edward Nissan, The University of Southern Mississippi

American Economist