Review: Here's a fundamental question: why are school students apparently less concerned about environmental issues than similar groups used to be? Given the level of environmental reporting and concern in the national and international press this is a fair point. Further, this is not just a problem of interest in news, research shows a deeper malaise. Whilst this review is no place to suggest a perfect solution at least one avenue to explore might be to harness the interest students have into something they can relate to. This brings us to this book which is a polemic focussed on one aspect - corporate power and what it can do. As such it seeks to demonstrate that there are key groups and individuals who have access to a level of power beyond that which they might be expected to have. It follows that other groups and indivuduals will have access to less power. The dimensions and implications of this are the subject of this author, self-described as a "communications Rottweiler".

We start with a very brief overview of the comnnections between global companies and are given some insight into the central thesis of the book. With this background in mind, subsequent chapters describe particular aspects. Thus chapter two looks ta the way in which corporations built up powwer within nations, taking examples from the US and UK to demonstrate this. Once this was established, power went international initially, according to the cases in chapter three, as a way of spreading influence over a small range of countries. The imfamous case of the CIA and Chile is the key example here. Chapter four examines the role played by certain US agreements in the development of other nations' economic policies. Thus the crude intervention in chapter three gives way to a more ideological methodology in chapter four. Next, the arguemnt moves on to look at the 'privatisation' of services: the selling of public assets to private owners. Several cases are used largely to highlight the problems such changes have had for the consumers. The focus now turns to trade agreements. Chapter six discusses the creation of trade ideas through, for example, the WTO and the ways in which such agendas are biased towards the corporate interest. This is continued in chapter seven where the focus ios specifically on services e.g. banking where these 'stateless' multinational nonetheless seek to influence state policy. Chapter 8 and 9 are linked in that they both look at at specific areas of trade agreements. The former looks at the way certain perspectives can hold sway whilst the latter focusses on deregulation of investment, in particular, the Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment. That such discussions were not smooth highlighted the case that business leaders had opponents. Such was the criticism surrounding the Seattle talks of the WTO in 1999 that chapter 10 shows how some key business leaders sought to rectify the situation. A final, brief chapter tells of the problems we face.

This is a very interesting text. It is well written with a wealth of references and although it is focussed on one area it puts a very convincing case. As such it is a good model of writing, a valuable guide to putting a case that students could follow with benefit. That many of the examples given are environmental is an additional bonus for us. For those who want a critical examination of current trade and business policy this is an excellent book - one of the few in recent years to put together such a convincing argument. Returning to the original point, maybe work like this will help raise student environmental awareness?