In the Hurricane's Eye: The Troubled Prospects of Multinational Enterprises / Edition 1

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Troubled Prospects of Multinational Enterprises / Edition 1

by Raymond Vernon
ISBN-10:
0674004248
ISBN-13:
9780674004245
Pub. Date:
10/16/2000
Publisher:
Harvard University Press
ISBN-10:
0674004248
ISBN-13:
9780674004245
Pub. Date:
10/16/2000
Publisher:
Harvard University Press
In the Hurricane's Eye: The Troubled Prospects of Multinational Enterprises / Edition 1

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Troubled Prospects of Multinational Enterprises / Edition 1

by Raymond Vernon
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Overview

The world's multinational enterprises face a spell of rough weather, political economist Ray Vernon argues, not only from the host countries in which they have established their subsidiaries, but also from their home countries. Such enterprises--a few thousand in number, including Microsoft, Toyota, IBM, Siemens, Samsung, and others--now generate about half of the world's industrial output and half of the world's foreign trade; so any change in the relatively benign climate in which they have operated over the past decade will create serious tensions in international economic relations.

The warnings of such a change are already here. In the United States, interests such as labor are increasingly hostile to what they see as the costs and uncertainties of an open economy. In Europe, those who want to preserve the social safety net and those who feel that the net must be dismantled are increasingly at odds. In Japan, the talk of "hollowing out" takes on a new urgency as the country's "lifetime employment" practices are threatened and as public and private institutions are subjected to unaccustomed stress. The tendency of multinationals in different countries to find common cause in open markets, strong patents and trademarks, and international technical standards has been viewed as a loss of national sovereignty and a weakening of the nation-state system, producing hostile reactions in home countries.

The challenge for policy makers, Vernon argues, is to bridge the quite different regimes of the multinational enterprise and the nation-state. Both have a major role to play, and yet must make basic changes in their practices and policies to accommodate each other.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674004245
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 10/16/2000
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Raymond Vernon was Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface

Setting the Context: Multinational Enterprises in a System of Nation-States

A Rough Take-off for the Multinationals

Calibrating the Multinationals' Importance

Multinationals' Behavior in International Markets

The Challenge: Accommodating Multinationals and Nation-States

Tensions in the Background: Conflict between Multinational Enterprises and Nation-States

The Nation-States' Struggle for Jobs

Taxing Multinationals

Security for the Nation-State

Conflicts of Jurisdiction, Culture, and Principle

Inside the Emerging Economies: High Stakes for Nation-States and Multinational Enterprises

Latin America

Fading Stars of Asia

Transitional Economics: From Hungary to China

India

Conclusions

Inside the Industrialized Economies: New Sources of Tension

The Case of Europe

The Case of the United States

The Case of Japan

Common Problems, Common Responses

The Struggle over Open Markets: The Gathering Clouds

Ambivalence in the United States and Europe

Multinationals and the Struggle for Public Resources

Uncertainties in the International Political Climate

Righting the Balance: Possible Policy Responses

The Search for Global Principles

Bilateral Agreements

Industry-Centered Agreements

Regional Agreements

Possible New Initiatives

Unilateral Measures

Reprise

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

No one has had deeper insight or a surer grasp into the global economy over several decades than Raymond Vernon. Now with In the Hurricane's Eye, he explains clearly and logically why the apparent calm between multinational enterprises and the nation-state is likely to be shattered by the inherent conflicts between them. Both practitioners and analysts will benefit from the wisdom and unique perspective he brings to this critical and timely subject.

Marina V.N. Whitman

At the very moment when market capitalism and the multinational enterprises that both reflect and propagate it are in global ascendancy, this book sounds a timely note of caution. Vernon, whose pathbreaking Sovereignty at Bay offered a fresh perspective on the interactions between multinational firms and national governments a quarter of a century ago, here lays out why their divergent goals make mounting clashes inevitable. One does not have to share Vernon's pessimism to profit from his analysis of these growing tensions and the steps that might be taken to lessen them.
Marina V.N. Whitman, University of Michigan

Shirley Williams

An invaluable analysis of the role of multinationals in today's globalizing economy by one of the wisest and most experienced experts in the field.
Shirley Williams, Baroness of Crosby, House of Lords

Daniel Yergin

No one has had deeper insight or a surer grasp into the global economy over several decades than Raymond Vernon. Now with In the Hurricane's Eye, he explains clearly and logically why the apparent calm between multinational enterprises and the nation-state is likely to be shattered by the inherent conflicts between them. Both practitioners and analysts will benefit from the wisdom and unique perspective he brings to this critical and timely subject.
Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Prize

David Vogel

In the Hurricane's Eye is the most important book on the political economy of the multinational corporation to be published since Sovereignty at Bay. Ray Vernon has once again demonstrated his insightful and distinctive understanding of the trends affecting the dynamics of business-government relations in the global economy.
David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley

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