The Rules of the Game in the Global Economy: Policy Regimes for International Business (Second Edition) analyzes the evolution of international policy regimes affecting the development and management of international business. The authors explain the nature of international regimes, and show how the interlinked processes of global economic integration and multinational enterprise expansion make the development of regimes both inevitable and desirable. They then examine several major types of regime currently in place, including those that have emerged from global or regional institutions such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Community (EC), as well as those dealing with functional areas such as international trade and payments, sea and air transportation, telecommunications, and environmental issues. They conclude with an assessment of the critical similarities and differences among existing regimes, the most likely direction and scope of future regime development, and the important implications of regime evolution for international management. This second edition provides the reader with the following revisions: Update all data and tables and include more recent developments and examples, wherever possible and appropriate. Give specific attention to the evolution of new institutional arrangements, such as the European Union, NAFTA, and WTO. Increase emphasis on the importance to business and economic activity of environmental regimes as reflected in the issues raised at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and related developments. Reorganize some sections of the text including the rearrangement of materials within and among others, and the introduction of a separatechapter on telecommunications and services.

This study has been long in the making, and the world has changed dramatically while we have been at work. We initially anticipated a substantial section on the Soviet-dominated Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or "COMECON"), which offered an interesting contrast to the kind of international business regime typically found among market-oriented countries and industries. As we moved toward publi- tion, the CMEA vanished, and so we mention it only in passing. The USSR subsequently disintegrated into a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On the other hand, we began with the assumption that the historic "rule of capture" no long played a significant role in international economic relations. The seizure of Kuwait's territory and wealth by the government of Iraq suggests that this assumption was heavily influenced by wishful thinking. Even though this seizure has been reversed by military action, the experience remains a challenge to generally held beliefs about the strength of "order" versus "chaos" in contemporary international affairs. Some readers of this volume have suggested that it gives insufficient attention to the fact that many of the important business and economic regimes of the postwar period are currently under significant pressure, perhaps even in danger of collapse. We acknowledge that there are many evidences of strain in, for example, the free trade and money exchange regimes, and in many areas of environmental protection.

This study has been long in the making, and the world has changed dramatically while we have been at work. We initially anticipated a substantial section on the Soviet-dominated Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or "COMECON"), which offered an interesting contrast to the kind of international business regime typically found among market-oriented countries and industries. As we moved toward publi- tion, the CMEA vanished, and so we mention it only in passing. The USSR subsequently disintegrated into a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On the other hand, we began with the assumption that the historic "rule of capture" no long played a significant role in international economic relations. The seizure of Kuwait's territory and wealth by the government of Iraq suggests that this assumption was heavily influenced by wishful thinking. Even though this seizure has been reversed by military action, the experience remains a challenge to generally held beliefs about the strength of "order" versus "chaos" in contemporary international affairs. Some readers of this volume have suggested that it gives insufficient attention to the fact that many of the important business and economic regimes of the postwar period are currently under significant pressure, perhaps even in danger of collapse. We acknowledge that there are many evidences of strain in, for example, the free trade and money exchange regimes, and in many areas of environmental protection.

The subject of this study is the way that finns, industries, and nations organize their relationships with one another in order to engage in international business. To the casual observer, the processes of buying and selling, borrowing and lending, investing and receiving investment returns may seem much the same, whether they occur within a single country or between and among businesses in different political jurisdictions. In fact, however, business contacts between firms or individuals in different coun tries are significantly different from their domestic counterparts. Not only do international buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders, investors and earnings recipients often use different languages and currencies, they also frequently operate under different basic rules governing contracts, accounting practices, and dispute-settlement arrangements; and they are subject to different tax systems. Most important, they may require explicit pennission, or at least facilitating arrangements, from their respective governments in order to engage in any economic contact whatsoever. It may well be that, as Adam Smith believed, there is "a certain propensity in human nature . . . to truck, barter, and exchange one 1, p. 17); but the fact is that most im thing for another" (1776, vol. portant markets and business relationships do not simply appear and evolve as natural phenomena. In fact, they are created by human effort and are highly organized, and international business relationships are the most highly organized of all."