Private Authority and International Affairs

Governments today are too often unwilling to intervene in global commerce, and international organizations are too often unable to govern effectively. In their place, firms increasingly cooperate internationally to establish the rules and standards of behavior for themselves and for others, taking on the mantle of authority to govern specific issue areas. Are they stepping into the breach to supply needed collective goods? Or are they organizing themselves in order to prevent governments from interfering in their business? This book explores the meaning of this private international authority, both for theory and policy, through case studies of specific industries, associations, and issue areas in both contemporary and historical perspective.

Pamela L. Burke is a Ph.D. candidate, University of Maryland, College Park A. Claire Cutler is Assistant Professor of International Relations and International Law in the Political Science Department, University of Victoria, Canada Michel Delapierre is a Charge de Recherche in the CNRS and Director of the Centre de Recherche sur les Entreprises Multinationales, Universite de Paris-X, Nanterre Virginia Haufler is Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park Lynn Krieger Mytelka is current Director of the Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva Tony Porter is Associate Professor of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada Liora Salter is Professor of Law at Osgoode Law School, York University, Canada, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Susan K. Sell is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University Timothy J. Sinclair is a member of the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, and is an external research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies, York University, Toronto Debora Spar is Associate Professor at Harvard Business School Michael C. Webb is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada