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 foreign trade. So any change in the relatively benign climate in which they have operated during the 1990s will create serious tensions in international economic relations. The warnings of such a change are already here. In the United States, interests such as labour are increasingly hostile to what they see as the costs and uncertainties of an open economy. In Europe, those that 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 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, Raymond Vernon argues in this text, 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 accomodate each other."

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However, noted MNC expert Raymond Vernon2, in the thoughtful and comprehensive In the Hurricane's Eye actually sees a potential challenge to the ascent of the MNC as the world prepares to enter the new millennium...Vernon does more than simply chronicle the growing hostility toward MNCs across the globe. In the Hurricane's Eye concludes with a thorough examination of how best to deal with the inevitable conflicts between multinational corporations and various actors within the nation states of the developed world...Vernon, by examining this latest round of hostilities, makes it clear that the nation state must continue to figure into our assessment of the authority of the MNC. -- Michael Carriere Review of Political Economy

"However, noted MNC expert Raymond Vernon2, in the thoughtful and comprehensive ""In the Hurricane's Eye"" actually sees a potential challenge to the ascent of the MNC as the world prepares to enter the new millennium...Vernon does more than simply chronicle the growing hostility toward MNCs across the globe. ""In the Hurricane's Eye"" concludes with a thorough examination of how best to deal with the inevitable conflicts between multinational corporations and various actors within the nation states of the developed world...Vernon, by examining this latest round of hostilities, makes it clear that the nation state must continue to figure into our assessment of the authority of the MNC.--Michael Carriere ""Review of Political Economy "" Vernon argues that the present ostensibly cordial relationships between governments and multinationals disguises serious tensions which need addressing by policy makers...Vernon's book is an opportune reminder that underlying tensions between the interests of 'governments' and multinationals did not disappear in the 1990s, and that much of the enthusiasm for multinational investment in emerging and other economies is either naive, or, at the very least, based on insufficient understanding of the consequences of foreign direct investment.--Geoffrey Jones ""Business History "" Vernon sees TNCs in the eye of the hurricane, hence a rather gloomy prediction...In short, like any good weatherperson, Vernon has given us the warning signs. But he has done them one better. Unlike the weather, where 'everyone talks about it but no one does anything about it', Vernon's grand tour does include suggestions on how the hurricane can be avoided.--Tagi Sagafi-nejad ""Transnational Corporations "" least, based on insufficient understanding of the consequences of foreign direct investment. that the nation state must continue to figure into our assessment of the authority of the MNC. weather, where 'everyone talks about it but no one does anything about it', Vernon's grand tour does include suggestions on how the hurricane can be avoided."

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