Suchergebnisse

Knudsen, O. Foreign Investment and Multinational Corporations in the Nordic Countries. Cooperation and Conflict, XV, 1980, 209-215. The main question here is: How exposed are the Nordic countries to the political influence of multinational corporations? The article briefly surveys and compares the Nordic regulatory systems for foreign business. Concerning the nature of the political influence of MNCs, it is argued that geographical dispersion is a key variable, assuming centralized corporations: The more geographically extended a company's commitments, the greater its bargaining power vis-à-vis host countries. To answer the initial question therefore requires a differentiation of data pertaining to geographically dispersed, from those pertaining to geographically concentrated, corporations. The article presents such data for the Nordic countries, and shows significant differences between them.

Knudsen, O. National Interests and Foreign Policy: On the National Pursuit of Material Interests. Cooperation and Conflict, XIV, 1979, 11-19. The classical concept of 'the national interest' is not at issue here. Rather, an attempt is made to systematize some quite simple and familiar ideas about 'what is to the material advantage' of a state in given situations of choice. The basic argument is that most current explanations of foreign-policy activity stress bureaucratic/administrative factors and overlook the possible significance of the material benefits at stake. 'National interests', in this usage, are the prospective national gains or losses in a concrete decisional situation. The article sets out the outline of a procedure by which objective estimates (i.e. based on the analyst's systematic criteria rather than the participant's own evaluations) of material advantage may be made. Examples of such studies are given. The last part of the article raises the question of what can and cannot be explained by this approach, and compares it with reasoning based on interest groups and decision-making factors. The conclusion emphasizes that our knowledge of the true significance of interest groups and decision-making factors is very limited as long as such models are not tested against the predictions of a 'national-interest model'.

"What is power and how is it effective? This volume responds to these questions in terms of regional international relations with a particular focus on the Baltic Sea region, an area still charged with a residue of Cold War conflict and power disparity, in a setting of new cooperative ventures. Each contributor examines the region from a different angle and discusses how its actors coped with the new situation facing them after 1991. The volume looks at how governments have defined their new circumstances, how they have dealt with the opportunity to shift to a new mode of coexistence and collaboration, and how they have tackled the challenge of peacefully converting their region to a security community. The book breaks with tradition by adopting a new, thematic approach based on regional issues and functions rather than a country-by-country discourse. It will be of critical value to readers interested in security studies and European politics."--Provided by publisher.

The book is a tribute to Johan Jorgen Holst, Norway's late Minister of Foreign Affairs. It considers the outstanding issues of our time: the high politics of East/West confrontation and the post-Cold War readjustment in Europe. Holst contributed significant ideas to the handling of these issues. Though representing merely a small state, Johan Holst's mastery of the subject-matter and authoritative personal presence gave him an influential voice in high-level discourse on Western policy during more than two decades