The research aims to discover the causal factors that make some nations more supportive of world order than others. Seven indicators of national support for world order are identified. Scores on them and on a combined index for 114 nations are obtained. Switzerland and three Scandinavian nations rank at the top, the United States is at rank 40, and the Soviet Union at 72. Five significant causal factors are identified, which yield a multiple correlation coefficient of .69 with the Index of National Support for World Order. The most powerful predictor is the degree to which citizens of a nation participate in international nongovernmental organizations. Less powerful are national levels of enlightenment, urgency of foreign trade, productivity relative to reference nations, and, negatively, population pressure. in a time of recent vicious war in Southeast Asia, continuing tension in the Middle East, and widespread disillusion with the United Nations, it may seem quixotic to pursue research on factors conducive to national support for world order. Yet, if it is a time of disappointing performance, it is also a time of great need and encouraging potentiality. Nuclear weapons pose a threat that makes men actively seek a global solution, and modern communication and travel offer hopeful means for reaching the minimum consensus necessary. Downloaded from among nations. National support for world order, as the criterion variable for this research, can thus be defined as: &dquo;efforts and activities that foster the development of a system of relations among nations capable of creating and maintaining world peace.&dquo; Since this is a variable, its value for any nation may be high or low. There may even be nations that actively oppose world order.
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