OLUFUNKE BAKARE GLB-301 OCTOBER, 2013

Answer each of the following questions on the peril of conflict and the promise of conflict resolution. Your answer to each item should be an essay of 350 to 800 words in length. (With a typical font and spacing, this comes to between 1½ and 3 pages.) It is recommended that you refer to outside sources as you consider these issues. Be sure to document your sources correctly.

Answer one (1) of the following questions:
We live in a world in which 13 of the top 50 economies are companies, not countries. How does this change the responsibility companies have for providing for social needs and addressing big-ticket challenges of the future? How can companies ensure their own …show more content…

For instance, the United Fruit Corporation, an American corporation, began its reign in the affairs of Latin America by acquiring seven independent companies in Honduras. From there United Fruit moved on to become the largest importer of bananas to the United States, controlling 90%. The lesson to be learned from this is that companies are always looking for a way to increase profits, so they are continually looking for cheaper, more efficient resources.
Since the mid 1980s, investment in developing countries has significantly increased, greatly due to globalization (Greer & Singh). These developing countries are structurally unstable and are burdened by debt and unemployment, the foreign investment distributed into these countries will lead to a more stable and prosperous economy for them. The Economist agrees citing that that MNCs are "the embodiment of modernity and the prospect of wealth: full of technology, rich in capital, replete with skilled jobs" (The Economist, 9). In hopes of attracting potential investors, governments of the less developed countries have been queuing up to attract multinationals by lowering trade restrictions and making their economic environment more hospitable for foreign investment. There are however, opponents of MNCs and one of the main arguments is the "race to the bottom" theory; which states that "[u]nfettered globalization triggers and unavoidable "race to the bottom" in labor and environmental standards