ABSTRACT
The case studies included in this book give many examples of conflict between foreign investors, on one hand, and host governments and labor organizations, on the other. Popular accounts of these conflicts oversimplify the issues and emphasize the irrational elements—irrational in the sense of not being relevant to the economic issues involved; for example, charges of socialism or of foreign exploitation. Thus the issues on which meaningful bargaining takes place, the elements in bargaining strength, and the complex nature of conflict itself are not revealed. While the type of conflict with which we are concerned is capable of rational analysis and the range of possible or likely solutions can be assessed, the outcome of the “game” does not ordinarily admit to formal mathematical solution as in the case of stylized problems in game theory.
