Terrorism and Corporate Responsibility

For their own and our mutual security we believe corporate bodies need to recognize that they are thee basic social entities in the emerging global community. It is then reasonable that businesses, including those that are not for profit, should seek a bigger role in creating mutual institutions capable of addressing global security.

The UK government’s assessment of the imminent risk of terrorist attack rose to critical today. The British police acted to pre-empt, and hopefully foil, an imminent attack on global air transport routed through the UK. These events effected corporate business, commercial and other, across the planet. Those transiting through London had their business continuity disrupted. Much of this business would have been unrelated to direct British interest. Crucial meetings were missed, deals failed to close, aid and succour was not delivered. These events were thus a matter of global not just British security.

This global perspective is crucial. Nations are designed to protect the value their citizens and enterprises generate. Modern telecoms, the Internet, global finance and the fast easy international movement of goods and people has created a new global space. This has to be seen as more than the sum of national business activity. Who is, or should be, accountable for the security of enterprise in this new space?

The actors in the global community are corporate bodies: not individuals, not citizens not states. They are Shell, Greenpeace, Unilever, Oxfam, Sony-Ericsson, Amnesty International, Nokia, Medecins Sans Frontiere, Cisco Systems, the Red Cross, Microsoft, etc, etc. These may be incorporated in a nation de jure but de facto their incorporation is global.

A few weeks ago the bombs in Mumbai made clear that the local social infrastructure of an outsourced supplier in India can be as crucial to a US or British corporation’s continuity as is its local infrastructure in Manhattan or the City. The UK air security clampdown occurred at a key hub in the global communications infrastructure.

In such a context corporate responsibility for the security interests of shareholders, customers, staff and suppliers must surely be seen as global not national. On this view corporations need to find ways to act mutually to protect their security. States by definition while corporate are local actors. Clearly international co-operation has a huge role to play in our security. However global society is a corporate creation. Corporate responsibility in such a society surely dictates a need for the social engagement of corporations with each other across industries and the planet.