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The articles in this volume examine how the world-economy and related non-economic forms of global structuring have impacted the natural environment and the living conditions of human populations across the globe, in areas as diverse as Ancient Egypt and the modern Amazon.

This research examines the substantive and empirical linkages between world system properties and mass political conflict within nations. Traditional conflict frameworks are first criticized for their neglect of or improper attention to external determinants of domestic mass violence, and an alternative world system approach to international-national conflict linkages is then developed. World system structure and the positions of nations in it (circa 1965) are operationalized via a multiple-network (blockmodel) analysis of several forms of transnational interactions. Results of this initial analysis are entered in cross-national models that link countries' structural position in the world system and pertinent national, political and economic characteristics to three forms of domestic unrest (internal war, collective protest, government sanctions). Multiple-regression estimates of these models indicate weak but theoretically interpretable direct and indirect (through domestic political and economic factors) effects of world system position on internal strife. Further substantive and empirical treatment focuses on the relationships between a specific type of external influence (foreign military interventions initiated and received by nations) and domestic conflict. The empirical results indicate differences in these relationships according to nations' world system position. For example, only in non-Western countries does there appear to be a type of conflict spiral whereby internal strife encourages, and is subsequently heightened by, foreign military penetration. Based on these and prior findings, the dissertation concludes with presentation of an approach which argues that world system properties affect national political economy and countries' susceptibility to foreign influence. A research agenda for investigating this orientation is also specified.

Infant mortality rates in the Third World are grievously high. We offer a synthetic theoretical framework and quantitative analysis that integrates public health, political-economy, and world system/dependency determinants of infant mortality. Prominent in the framework and analysis are the forces of militarization—weapons imports, military regimes, military participation—which are customarily overlooked both in the infant mortality literature and in American sociology. Our results point to the explanatory power of this integrative approach. They show the significant role militarization plays in Third World development and infant mortality.