November 2022
Technical Note
HBS Case Collection

National Security and Transnational Capitalism

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:13

Abstract

Though the relationship between national security and transnational commerce had long been interrogated and contested, the 2020s saw the escalation of concerns about insecurity and interdependence. These concerns manifested in a suite of institutional innovations and reconfigurations, mostly in developed economies (countries that were members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD), that had the effect of restricting and regulating firm behavior. This note is designed to educator managers on the relationship between globalization and security and describes institutions designed to manage security risks that can accompany transnational commerce with a focus on the OECD. These institutions target trans-border flows in different lines of the Balance of Payments: investment screening mechanisms (ISMs) target inward FDI and portfolio flows, export controls target exports in goods and services, and outbound reviews target outbound capital account flows.