Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • January–February 2015
  • Article
  • Foreign Policy

Heroic Villains: Are Foreign Investors Problems or Solutions in the Ebola Crisis?

By: Debora L. Spar
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

For months, the news out of West Africa has been unrelentingly grim. As of early December, the devastating Ebola epidemic had infected a reported 17,942 people and killed 6,388, according to the World Health Organization (WHO); the actual toll, which would also account for unreported cases, is presumed to be even higher. Yet there have been glimpses of good news amid the tragedy, including some emanating from unlikely sources: multinational companies that play an outsized role in West Africa's economy. As the Ebola epidemic continues to rage, therefore, foreign investors such as Firestone and ArcelorMittal find themselves cast on both sides of a complicated, perennial debate. In the end, the threat of Ebola is so dire that the world community would be foolish not to deploy whatever lines of resistance are available. That includes the WHO, Doctors Without Borders, armies, volunteers -- and, yes, even rapacious extractive industries. Because the problem here is not the power of foreign firms. It is the weakness of local states. Adapted from the source document.

Keywords

Ebola; Multinational Corporation; Epidemics; Foreign Investment; Extractive Industries; Multinational Firms and Management; Health Pandemics; Developing Countries and Economies; Government and Politics; Africa

Citation

Spar, Debora L. "Heroic Villains: Are Foreign Investors Problems or Solutions in the Ebola Crisis?" Foreign Policy 210 (January–February 2015).
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Debora L. Spar

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • February 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Linda Oubré at Whittier College

    By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau
    • November 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary's Place

    By: Paul M. Healy, Debora L. Spar and Amy Klopfenstein
    • June 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Linda Oubré at Whittier College (C)

    By: Debora L. Spar and Haley P. Brown
More from the Author
  • Linda Oubré at Whittier College By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau
  • Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary's Place By: Paul M. Healy, Debora L. Spar and Amy Klopfenstein
  • Linda Oubré at Whittier College (C) By: Debora L. Spar and Haley P. Brown
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College