This thesis will argue that to remain relevant within scholarship, IR scholars should recognize, as Nye and Strange have, that MNCs are powerful actors that influence the states they operate in,...Show moreThis thesis will argue that to remain relevant within scholarship, IR scholars should recognize, as Nye and Strange have, that MNCs are powerful actors that influence the states they operate in, the global political economy, and the norms and values the international system is based on. This point is fundamental to the study of IR so long as IR claims to explore power dynamics and the influences behind state-to-state interaction. This thesis does not claim that multinationals ought to be included in the study of IR on the grounds that they supersede the state or that states are no longer important in global governance, rather it argues that MNCs are important to the current structure of the global order. Its central research question seeks to explore how multinational corporations can be incorporated into the IR discipline. It looks at constructivism as the appropriate theoretical tool to do so. Although it seeks to add to the constructivist school of thought, it also critiques previous constructivist literature for not having done so already. These criticisms are two-fold: constructivists have failed to 1) analyze the MNC in terms of identities, interest, and power; and 2) analyzing contemporary international relations from a standpoint that is too theoretical to fully observe the realities of international relations in practice.Show less
