Introduction -- Fundamentals: A better approach to understanding foreign direct investment and multinational corporations -- Defining the subject : subtleties and ambiguities -- From obscurity to international economic powerhouse : the evolution of multinational corporations -- Heterogeneity : the many kinds of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations and their disparate effects -- Perceptions and economic ideologies -- The strategy of multinationals: Why companies invest overseas -- Where multinational corporations invest and don't invest and why -- Impact on the international order: Effects of foreign direct investment on less developed countries : vagaries, variables, negatives, and positives -- Why and how multinational corporations have altered international trade -- Multinational corporations versus the nation-state : has sovereignty been outsourced? -- The international regulation of multinational corporations : why there is no multilateral foreign direct investment regime -- The case for foreign direct investment and multinational corporations -- The case against foreign direct investment and multinational corporations -- An agnostic conclusion : "it depends" -- Recommendations: An agenda for future action.