"Regional" Trading Patterns 1938-1963

Abstract

In my recent International Regions and the International System' I examined the relationships over the post-World War II period among a number of variables generally considered relevant to delineating regional groupings of nations. In the tradition of taxonomy, the exercise showed clusterings of nations as determined separately by the criteria of cultural similarity, similarity of behavior in international politics, common membership in international organizations, economic interdependence, and geographic proximity. Additionally, it explored at a more general and theoretical level the interaction among these different influences, including changes over time, the degree to which the knowledge of nations' clustering by one criterion could be used to predict how states would cluster on another, and the relation of the clusterings to patterns of violent conflict. The book-length examination was limited, however, to information on bonds among nations during the 1950's and early 1960's. Most of the basic data sources (aggregate data on national characteristics, international organization memberships) were not generally available or (UN voting patterns)2 were inapplicable to the interwar