ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of global economic forces within corporations in the late twentieth century and the political-economic consequences of their increasingly global integration. As the spatial scale of firms’ economic activity expands to encompass the globe, the roles of other political economic actors (communities, states, and even nations) seem to diminish. The strategies of corporations increasingly reflect the prospects of their stock value, which in turn impact the wealth and health of nations. Geopolitical colonization and neocolonialism has been replaced (though not completely) by geo-economic interdependency; substantial “economic clout” still resides in the most advanced countries, with emerging developing nations – China, Indonesia and India, for example – competing to perform more routine, low-cost and lower-order manufacturing and producer service tasks.
