While few scholars have narrativized it as such, a few seemingly disconnected events over the past year might be indicators that we are entering an era in which, at least in the geo-economic sphere, nation states will have a set of new and powerful rivals: transnational corporations. These legal entities – from more narrowly-focused social media companies like Facebook to do-it-all conglomerates like Alibaba and Google – have users across the globe, holding different passports, speaking different languages, using different currencies, and perhaps most crucially, are subject to the laws of different nation states.
But at the same time that they stretch transnationally, these entities are themselves incorporated within the jurisdictions of sovereign states. As their power and reach have continued to grow, the friction inherent in operating within multiple legal systems has led (and will continue to lead) to showdowns with national governments. Examples abound: the recent victory of the Australian government over Google, which forced the latter to pay news producers for links to stories; the UK court decision on Uber’s gig-worker classification, which came down on the other side of the Prop 22 outcome in California; the CCP’s quashing of Jack Ma’s Ant IPO last December, motivated by a desire for greater control over Yuan capital flows; not to mention the skirmishes between Silicon Valley and Congress over Section 230 in the United States. All thematically connected by the tension between transnational and national domains, these clashes represent the bleeding edge of an emerging geopolitical stage in which nation states, long king of the hill, will have to fight to keep their place in the pecking order.
Questions and Background
- To what degree should U.S. policymakers consider treating international corporations as supra- or extra-national bodies within future policy plans?
- In what ways are the geo-economic lines between nation states and international corporations becoming blurred? To the degree that there are distinctions, how should policymakers draw them?
- Do U.S. policymakers have international obligations to influence, or even regulate, large U.S.-based corporations at home?
Why China is Bringing Big Tech to Heel
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