What does "Multi National Corporation (MNC)" mean with regard to international relations?

A MNC is a corporation that does business (producing
and/or selling) in more than one country.  There are many important MNCs today and they
are, some believe, growing in power.  Since your other questions today have dealt with
international relations, I will discuss MNCs' importance in
IR.

To some IR theorists, MNCs are diminishing the power of
states.  They argue that the MNCs are coming to have more power than states, especially
small ones.  For example, if Chinese companies come to dominate the economy of Vietnam,
those companies will be able to significantly affect what the Vietnamese government can
do.  If the Vietnamese government wants to change its economic policies, for example, it
will have to be sure that its actions will not cause these Chinese companies to leave
the country.  In that way, the MNC has power over the actions of the governments of some
countries.

If this happens, states become less important
and MNCs have more power.