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T he Preamble Collaborative is hardly a household name; it is a small, relatively new, Washington-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) employing three full-time researchers. Nonetheless, its stated mission of promoting vigorous public debate about economic problems was accomplished with a vengeance when it came to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). The primary objective of the governments negotiating the MAX was to facilitate international investment by ensuring that host governments treat all foreign and domestic firms similarly. While the 29 wealthy nations comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were busy negotiating, however, other unexpected--and unwelcome--participants were looking over their shoulders. The Preamble Collaborative was one of more than 600 organizations in nearly 70 countries expressing vehement opposition to the treaty, often in apocalyptic terms. The collaborative's extensive World Wide Web site--featuring fact sheets, congressional testimony, position papers, and issue briefs--was part of a tidal wave of electronically amplified public opposition to the MAI. It was cited on more than 50 other Web sites and in 200 news group postings comprising what Guy
Stephen J. Kobrin (Thu,) studied this question.