July 14

SOMO: Centre For Research On Multinational Corporations

Development Business Multi-national corporations Trackbacks (0)

SOMO, founded in 1973, is an independent, non-profit Dutch organization “working on social, ecological and economic issues related to sustainable development.” SOMO’s mission includes eliminating “the structural causes of poverty, environmental problems, exploitation and inequality.” The organization’s focus is on multinational corporations and their activities that affect individuals and the environment. SOMO was founded in reaction to the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1973 and the perceived manipulations of the Chilean economy by American multinational companies. SOMO pursues its mission through research and training, with emphasis on empowering social organizations in developing countries. In addition to SOMO’s background and news, the website provides access to publications and dossiers. The publications database is extensive and includes items from other organizations. Keyword searching is available and searches may be narrowed by responsible organization, company name, and country. Topics of recent publications include banking sector liberalization in Uganda and private standards in the furniture, garment, and footwear industries. The dossiers cover individual companies, industries and supply chains, corporate accountability, and economic reform. The database of companies is quite large and allows users to review news, reports, and detailed company information. Users may also consult the other dossier sections to track news and trends affecting sustainable development. [Author: M. Morrison]

URL: http://somo.nl/

From InSITE, a Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library

March 27

Nonstate Actors And International Relations, And Implications For The United States

NGOs and NPOs United States of America International relations Multi-national corporations Trackbacks (0)

Conference Report: Nonstate Actors: Impact on International Relations and Implications for the United States
Source: National Intelligence Council

Participants in a series of NIC-Eurasia Group seminars in late 2006 and early 2007 discussed how the proliferation in recent years of nonstate actors—primarily multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and super-empowered individuals—is transforming international relations.

  • A globalization-fueled diffusion of finance and technology has enabled nonstate actors to encroach upon functions traditionally performed by nation-states, facilitating their evolution into forms unheard of even a few years ago. For example, “philanthrocapitalist” charities such as the Gates Foundation have greatly expanded notions of what a charitable NGO should look like.
  • Estimates of their impact should be made cautiously, however, for few nonstate actors are completely independent of nation-states, and they do not have uniform freedom of movement. Although nonstate actors have a great deal of latitude in both weak and post-industrial states, modernizing states such as China and Russia—home to the bulk of the world’s population—have been highly effective in suppressing them and in creating their own substitutes, some of which have demonstrated their power to counter US objectives and even to challenge global rules of engagement.
  • Most benign nonstate actors originate in the developed world, work within the framework provided by Western institutions and regimes, and act as propagators of “western values” such as free markets, environmental protection, and human rights. From that standpoint, a key concern for the United States may be not that these actors have become too powerful, but that in many parts of the world their influence is limited—a factor that is contributing to the tilting of the global playing field away from the United States and its developed-world allies.

+ Full Report (PDF; 45 KB)

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