From the technical analyses of wide ranges of scholars to the public discourse backlashes against globalization, there is a huge volume of work historicizing, quantifying, and problematizing the complex role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in international trade. The body of literature is so large that most readers rely on disciplinary boundaries to narrow the catalog, causing them to miss out on important synergies across fields. By bringing the work of historians, lawyers, and political scientists working on MNCs and international trade into conversation, we offer an expanded perspective. Our collective contribution highlights the political dimensions of MNCs within the frameworks of global economic governance, in which corporations seek to influence trade policies amid rising protectionism and coordinate their activities within industry associations while regulators struggle to hold MNC parent companies accountable to international human rights violations across their value chains. Especially in this moment of re-evaluation — and possible de-globalization following the shock of COVID-19 — our multidisciplinary analysis explains how MNCs exerted political power over trade regimes in the past, by what means they seek to shape regulatory frameworks in the present, and what the possible futures might be for big business operations in a more or less global economy.

中文翻译：

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跨国公司与多学科视角下的国际贸易政治

从广泛学者的技术分析到公众对全球化的强烈反对，有大量工作对跨国公司 (MNC) 在国际贸易中的复杂作用进行历史化、量化和问题化。文学体量如此之大，以至于大多数读者依靠学科界限来缩小目录，导致他们错过了跨领域的重要协同作用。通过将研究跨国公司和国际贸易的历史学家、律师和政治学家的工作带入对话，我们提供了一个扩展的视角。我们的集体贡献突出了跨国公司在全球经济治理框架内的政治层面，在这种情况下，企业寻求在保护主义抬头​​的情况下影响贸易政策，并在行业协会内协调其活动，而监管机构则努力让跨国公司母公司对其价值链中的国际侵犯人权行为负责。尤其是在这个重新评估的时刻——以及在 COVID-19 冲击之后可能出现的去全球化——我们的多学科分析解释了跨国公司过去如何对贸易制度施加政治权力，他们通过什么方式寻求塑造目前的监管框架，以及在或多或少的全球经济中大企业运营的可能未来。