When multinational corporations became international actors: a research note on the UN initiative on multinational corporations in development and international relations (1972-1974)

A Working Paper written by Sabine Selchow | 2026

My research note examines the role of the 1972–74 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) initiative in constituting multinational corporations as social actors within the international system. Scholarship has situated the initiative within the history of efforts to establish a code of conduct for multinational corporations. My note foregrounds its significance for the construction of international economic order. I argue that ECOSOC’s adoption of the term ‘multinational corporation’ reframed debates on foreign direct investment, restrictive business practices and sovereignty over natural resources. Questions concerning flows of capital, economic processes and business practices became questions about an identifiable actor and its conduct. This discursive shift enabled the attribution of responsibility to corporations while legitimising their standing as recognised participants with a place at the international negotiating table. By establishing the significance of this shift, my note provides a foundation for empirical research into the construction of multinational corporations as international actors, the participants in this process, and its implications for international economic order in the 1970s.

Selchow, Sabine Ulrike, When multinational corporations became international actors: a research note on the UN initiative on multinational corporations in development and international relations (1972-1974), EUI, HEC, Working Paper, 2026/09, ECOINT - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/96478