Some Attributes and Behavioral Patterns of Nations

The purpose of this communication is to make available some of the latest empirical results of the Dimensionality of Nations Project (Rummel, 1966) in as non-technical fashion as possible. The rather extensive information needed to evaluate technically and replicate these results will be fully presented elsewhere, such as Rummel, et al. (1967). The findings to be given help delineate some of the patterns in the attributes and the conflict behavior of nations, presented through a number of concise displays. The first three of these displays communicate the consequence of analyzing 1955 data on 236 characteristics of 82 nations to determine the major attribute dimensions (patterns) of variation for nations.l This analysis reduced a large mass of complex, interrelated data to a small number of distinct basic patterns. The remaining displays reveal the result of similarly analyzing 1955 data on the conflict actions of nations to define their major patterns of conflict behavior.