Conflict, cooperation, and the multinational corporation: Security and foreign direct investment in the developing world

What are multinational corporations' (MNCs) political preferences? How do these preferences shape their direct investment activities in the developing world? While a long literature in economics has considered the economic origins of the Multinational Corporation, an emerging body of scholarship in political science has taken an interest in how politics shape global foreign investment patterns. Most of this work has applied these questions to multinationals' preferences over host states' domestic political institutions. This dissertation considers them in the context of security outcomes and security policy, both domestic and foreign. I argue that they are drawn toward states that have enjoyed a long track-record of peaceful relations at home and abroad. However, I contend that they also have preferences over the underlying strategies states employ in pursuing peace and security. Whether a government relies more on coercive tactics or on cooperative tactics is not only suggestive of future risk, but such policies entail an assortment of sociopolitical and economic externalities that affect business' long-term efficiency and profitability.;However, not all sectors are affected by these externalities in the same ways. As such, the magnitudes, and even direction, of MNCs' security policy preferences may vary in accordance with the particular needs associated with their respective industries. I present a general theoretical framework for identifying multinationals' core political interests across different sectors of investment, which I apply to matters of security and security policy in forming my arguments and expectations. I test the according hypotheses using new firm-level data on the foreign operations of some of the world's largest multinationals. The empirical evidence largely supports my expectations, demonstrating that MNCs' not only have strong preferences over security outcomes, like war and peace, but also over the methods that states rely on in achieving their security-related objectives. Furthermore, multinationals' political preferences do indeed seem to vary across industries, implying that they are not monolithic in their interests and behaviors.;Altogether, this study improves our understanding of how multinationals navigate the uncertain and sometimes troubled waters of international politics. In addition, it suggests some important implications for policymaking and security in the 21st century.