The publication reflects the increasing role of FDI in globalized economy in its complexity and supports a deep understanding of foreign direct investment , its problems, regulation, impacts and opportunities related to it. The authors elaborate on the main concepts of cross border capital flows in the context of the past and current development of FDI. Individual chapters are aimed at the explanation of FDI, its features and classification, impacts of FDI on national economies, reasons, why multinational and transnational companies transfer their capital abroad, and international regimes and mechanisms of their regulation, including the World Trade Organization system and agreements on investment protection. A specific attention is given to the analysis of governmental policies and tools by which the investment flows are influenced. From this perspective, investment incentives and mechanism of protection of?investors and investment dispute settlement are analyzed. Final part aims at the analysis of concrete investment flows, and is targeted namely at the Czech Republic and the European Union.