This chapter looks at the considerations that shaped the negotiations of a United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations and at the search for balance in international investment rules, considerations that have since then continued to inform efforts to establish an international...

Based on an examination of 150 instruments (ranging from international investment agreements to MNE codes) that deal with the interaction between host countries and MNEs, this Perspective identifies common FDI sustainability characteristics and suggests ways in which stakeholders can utilize and...

In late 2008, as financial markets were crashing, the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment launched the Columbia FDI Perspectives. The first Perspective, entitled “The FDI recession has begun,” correctly forecast an FDI recession in the following year. From that first...

Even before the onset of the global crisis, the global market for foreign direct investment (FDI) had undergone significant changes. Foremost amongst these changes was the increasing importance of emerging market multinationals (MNEs). While outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from these...