Broadly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the ways in which organizations balance the ethical with the economic. This book follows the author's previous work on CSR, The Planetary Bargain, in which he argues for a global agreement between public and private sectors through cooperative CSR strategy. In Corporate Social Responsibility and International Development, Hopkins applies this argument to international development, contending that CSR has the potential to achieve successful development and poverty alleviation in a way that governments and agencies such as the UN have not been able to.

Corporate Social Responsibility and International Development is separated into twelve chapters. In the first two chapters, Hopkins introduces the key concepts and definitions of CSR. In these chapters, the author provides broad overviews of current debates in the field, highlighting the contested nature of CSR and its related concepts. The third chapter of the book contains CSR case studies. These demonstrate a breadth of activities, some more and some less successful, that might be considered as CSR. In the remaining chapters, Hopkins critiques international agencies and the current system of development, outlines the potential for CSR in alleviating poverty and contributing to development, and lays out his proposed actions for companies involved in development.

The strong arguments that Hopkins makes are perhaps weakened by his inconsistent use of evidence. He draws some evidence from diverse published studies and working papers. However, he also cites much evidence from unpublished market surveys, online newspaper articles and websites, whose affiliations, purposes or data sources are not always clear to the reader. Additionally, some of his arguments appear unfounded. For example, Hopkins supports his argument that the UN is ineffective by stating, without explanation or evidence, that staff are ‘…frequently being placed in senior posts simply because they are related in some way to one incompetent dictator or politician. … The Peter Principle flourishes in the UN’s system where everyone rises to their level of incompetence – remember that the Peter Principle promotes staff until they become incompetent and then they don't get promoted anymore. In the UN system, many senior positions are filled, by sideways movement, with incompetent people so there the Peter Principle works at double speed' (p. 190). Such sweeping generalizations appear unnecessary, and detract from, rather than support, Hopkins' arguments.

In Corporate Social Responsibility and International Development, the author makes strong claims about the ways in which CSR could, if approached correctly, be the key to international development. The book is a good overview of the current debate around CSR, and Hopkins does well to illustrate this debate by addressing previous critiques of his work in this publication. However, the author approaches international development without problematizing the view that Western business culture should be universalized, and does not consider how the concept of CSR might be adapted in line with socio-cultural nuances in contributing to development: at one stage, in discussing the activities of small- to medium-sized enterprises in less-developed countries, Hopkins claims that ‘…much of CSR is commonsense, sometimes so blindingly obvious that it is ignored’ (p. 160). As such, this work is most likely to appeal to those interested in an overview of the debate around CSR as an emerging business practice, rather than those interested in its cross-cultural application.