Dr Ellen Holtmaat

This course is available on the MSc in International Political Economy, MSc in International Political Economy (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in International Political Economy (Research). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the online application form linked to course selection on LSE for You. Admission is not guaranteed.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically high.

This course examines the role of global business as an actor in international relations. It reviews the political and economic theories that seek to explain the rise of global business, paying attention in particular to International Relations and International Political Economy theories (realism, liberalism, Marxism), but also covering the main economic explanations of MNCs. Thereafter, the course examines the interaction between global business and states in international relations. This involves the study of corporate power and how to conceptualise it in IPE, the study of state-firm bargaining over investment decisions, and the regulation of global business by states and international governance institutions. The final part of the course considers the role that global business plays in selected global policy areas: economic development, environmental protection and human rights. 

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Michaelmas Term. Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

10 lectures and 10 seminars on the following topics: 

1. Introduction: global business in international relations

2. Globalisation and the rise of MNCs

3. Economic theories of the global firm

4. The political economy of MNC-state relations

5. International rules for MNCs I: trade and investment

6. International rules for MNCs II: taxation and offshore finance

7. The UN and global business regulation

8. MNCs, FDI and developing countries

9. MNCs and environmental protection

10. MNCs, corporate social responsibility and human rights

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT.

Formative essay of 2,000 words. 

• Bonnitcha, J., Poulsen, L. N. S., & Waibel, M. (2017). The political economy of the investment treaty regime: Oxford University Press.
• Dashwood, H. S. (2012). The Rise of Global Corporate Social Responsibility: Mining and the Spread of Global Norms. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Falkner, R. (2008). Business Power and Conflict in International Environmental Politics. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hughes, O. E. and D. O'Neill (2008). Business, Government and Globalization. Basingstoke, Parlgrave Macmillan.
• Knudsen, J.S. and J. Moon (2017). Visible Hands. Government Regulation and International Business Responsibility. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Manger, M. (2009). Investing in Protection. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Mikler, J., Ed. (2013). The Handbook of Global Companies. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Mikler, J. (2018). The political power of global corporations. Cambridge: Polity.
• Rugman, A. M. (2014). Multinationals and development: Yale University Press.
• Woll, C. (2008). Firm Interests: How Governments Shape Business Lobbying on Global Trade. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Take-home assessment (100%) in January.