International Organizations and World Order

Abstract

This study investigates several recent research efforts which have concluded that participation or membership in international organizations by nations and by individuals has some impact on national support for "world order." It reanalyzes this earlier research utilizing a more parsimonious and more plausible explanation of national support for world order, namely the national attributes of the countries involved. It is concluded that even limiting the analysis to the national attributes of size, wealth, and type of political system provides as much explanation for national support for world order as participation in international organizations, and in some cases accounts for variation in support for world order that cannot be accounted for by participation in international organizations. Implications of these results are then broadened to other studies which use the nation-state as the unit of analysis.