Abstract
Many variables are thought to be relevant to international politics. Better theory is needed to increase parsimony, but meanwhile a tour d'horizon of possible data-gathering efforts is offered. Collection costs could be eased by sampling nations according to level of development, region, or policy importance, and many highly correlated measures could be eliminated. A list of indicators for American linkages to the world is given, with indicators distinguished between stock and flow; over-all linkages and links to particular states; and ratios of foreign links to domestic equivalents. The world environment should be documented according to national-attribute data on politics and social conditions; the world-wide distribution of value-achievement; value-aspirations; and the level and pattern of linkages of a world society. All indicators are labeled as to current availability or potential cost of collection. More effort should go to collating and distributing existing information than to new data-gathering, except for variables of exceptional theoretical interest.
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