International and Multinational Strategic Behaviour

SUMMARY This paper shows that the recent work introducing the strategic dimension into the analysis of international trade allows a fruitful enlargement of the traditional approach. The first section highlights certain aspects of international strategic relations, including the role played by the public authorities. The second applies this approach to private and public collusive strategies in international trade. Finally the third section introduces the elements of a theory of strategic foreign direct investment in the European context. The conclusion underlines that the central message of the strategic approach is not a support to more activist trade policies but the need for international credible rules and coordination that prevent unilateral strategies leading to ruinous industrial policy and mutually destructive trade wars.