Last Week You Attended a Series of Lectures at the Local

Essay

Last week you attended a series of lectures at the local university in which the speakers were discussing the role of corporations (such as yours) overseas. The first lecturer discussed the role of MNEs over the years as instruments of national power for the country in which they were based and discussed instances in which the firms became involved in local politics. The speaker condemned such companies as imperialists for attempting to impose U.S. values on foreign nations. The last speaker in the series argued that MNEs have a responsibility to identify injustice and violation of human rights in the nations where they operate and to use either persuasion or economic pressure to bring about change. Whose advice will you follow?