Jette Steen Knudsen is Professor of Policy and International Business at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts. She previously worked as a Professor of Political Science at Copenhagen University and before that at Copenhagen Business School, and she headed a government think-tank, the Copenhagen Centre for CSR. She has published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Policy and Politics and Regulation and Governance. Jeremy Moon is Velux Professor of Corporate Sustainability at Copenhagen Business School. He has published extensively on corporate social responsibility, including the edited textbook Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategy, Communication and Governance (2017), which is also published by Cambridge University Press, and the Very Short Introduction to CSR (2014). He was founding Director of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, University of Nottingham.

'You think government is irrelevant for corporate social responsibility? Think again! Based on penetrating case studies, Knudsen and Moon carefully unpick the ways in which national governments facilitate and shape corporate social responsibility to achieve their policy goals at home and abroad. In so doing, they shed new light on general debates about the interaction of public and private authority in global governance and the role of the state in a globalized world. Excellent book!' Philipp Genschel, European University Institute, Florence

• 1. Government and CSR: hands visible and invisible; 2. National government and international corporate social responsibility; 3. Government and corporate social responsibility: from domestic to international spheres; 4. Government and non-financial reporting: public policy in Denmark; 5. Governments and ethical trade: the ethical trading initiative and responses to Rana Plaza; 6. Governments and tax transparency: the extractive industries transparency initiative, Dodd-Frank, and the European Accounting Act amendments; 7. Conclusion: visible hands for responsible international business.