In today’s global economy, business leaders need to develop new policies and practices aimed at promoting responsible corporate citizenship. The United Nations Global Compact, launched in 2000, serves as a forum in which multinational businesses work to promote human rights, prevent violent conflict, and contribute to more peaceful societies. Peace through Commerce: Responsible Corporate Citizenship and the Ideals of the United Nations Global Compact contains a foreword, introduction, and twenty-one chapters by major business leaders and scholars who discuss the issues set out by the UN Global Compact. The chapters address the purpose of the corporation; the influence of legal and peace studies; the experience of career NGO officials and of business leaders; how commerce can help promote peace; and how we might envision the future. Ten case studies document the efforts of individual businesses, including IBM, Chevron, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, General Electric, Nestle, and Ford, to successfully serve society’s interests as well as their own. Peace through Commerce will lay the groundwork for courses in business schools on corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and global environment of business.
“This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on corporate social responsibility. While the general relationship between economic development and peace has been explored before, the practical exploration of corporate strategies embodied in this book is completely new. It will be of interest not only to those interested in corporate responsibility but also those who study development economics and those involved in peace studies.” —Kirk O. Hanson, Santa Clara University
