A new international industrial order

There can be little doubt that the present international order, especially in the field of industry, is markedly different from that which existed at the beginning of the century, and even from the order existing after the last war. This new order is distinguished above all by the extraordinary intensity that international competition has assumed in it; by the fact that primarily it only involves a few thousand world-scale transnational corporations operating in half a dozen technologically advanced industries and another half dozen which are in full process of restructuring; by the fact that its interest is centered on three markets (the United States, the European Economic Community and Japan), which together make up what is called “the Triad”; and by the fact that the power relations between the countries and the transnational corporations are in a process of continuous and ever more rapid change.