The Tangibility of Issues and Global Conflict: A Test of Rosenau's Issue Area Typology
| Author | John A. Vasquez |
| Date | 01 June 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234338302000206 |
| Published date | 01 June 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The
Tangibility
of
Issues
and
Global
Conflict:
A
Test
of
Rosenau’s
Issue
Area
Typology*
JOHN
A.
VASQUEZ
Rutgers
University,
New
Brunswick,
USA
While
the
concept
of
issue
area
in
foreign
policy
has
received
wide
theoretical
attention,
there
has
been
little
empirical
research
on
it.
This
analysis
tests
five
propositions
derived
from
Rosenau’s
pre-theory
in
order
to
assess
the
role
of
issues
in
foreign
policy
cooperation-conflict.
The
findings
show
that
the
tangibility
of
issues
is
a
potent
variable
in
analyzing
cooperation-conflict
when
combined
with
other
intervening
variables
such
as
the
number
of
actors,
the
costliness
of
employed
resources,
the
frequency
of
contention,
persistence,
and
linkages
to
other
issues.
The
findings
are
then
used
to
reformulate
Rosenau’s
analysis
into
five
new
propositions
which
stipulate
the
conditions
under
which
the
tangibility
of
issues
will
lead
to
cooperation-conflict
and
the
kinds
of
behavior
associated
with
each
of
Rosenau’s
four
issue
areas.
1.
Introduction
It
has
long
been
conventional
wisdom
that
inter-personal
or
intergroup
conflict
is
easier
to
resolve
when
the
issues
under
contention
are
tangible,
disaggregatable,
and
not
laden
with
symbolic
meaning.
This
insight
has
been
used
to
facilitate
conflict
resolution
in
sit-
uations
such
as
collective
bargaining
and
treaty
negotiation,
among
others.
Yet
its
implications
for
more
general
political
interaction
have
not
been
fully
explored.
This
analysis
will
demon-
strate
empirically
the
extent
to
which
global
cooperation
and
conflict
are
differentiated
by
the
tangibility
of
issues
and
explain
why
that
is
the
case.
The
proposition
that
political
interactions
would
differ
by
issue
area
was
first
put
forth
by
Dahl
(1963)
and
by
Lowi
(1964;
1967).
Then
Rosenau
(1966;
1967)
argued
that
what
distinguishes
issue
areas
from
each
other
is
their
tangibility.
More
recently,
Mansbach
&
Vasquez
(1981a)
have
seen
several
issue
char-
acteristics
as
critical
in
explaining
a
wide
variety
of
global
interactions.
Despite
this
extensive
theoretical
analysis,
there
has
been
little
empirical
testing
of
these
claims.
Several
studies
have
demonstrated
that
behavior
does
*
My
thanks
to
Marie
T.
Henehan
whose
earlier
analysis
on
issue
area
typologies
made
this
investigation
feasible,
and
whose
comments
on
this
paper
provided
valuable
suggestions.
indeed
vary
by
issue
(see
O’Leary
1976;
Mans-
bach
&
Vasquez
1981b).
However,
the
success
of
the
various
issue
area
typologies
in
pre-
dicting
that
variation
has
been
more
limited
(cf.
Brewer
1973;
Henehan
1981).
Henehan’s
(1981)
comparative
test
of
five
issue
area
typologies
including
both
Lowi’s
and
Ro-
senau’s
found
that
Rosenau’s
tangibility
typology
was
the
most
potent
in
predicting
foreign
policy
cooperation-conflict
(gamma
=
-.48).
This
bivariate
finding
warrants
a
more
in-depth
analysis
of
the
Rosenau
typology,
particularly
since
Rosenau
stated
that
tangi-
bility
would
be
a
potent
variable
only
when
combined
with
other
variables.
The
present
analysis
will
test
five
propositions
from
Rosenau’s
pre-theory
that
treat
tangibility
in
conjunction
with
other
issue-related
variables
to
explain
and
predict
foreign
policy
behavior.
The
findings
will
then
be
used
to
reformulate
and
refine
Rosenau’s
analysis
of
the
role
of
issues
in
global
cooperation
and
conflict.
2.
Deriving
propositions
from
Rosenau’s
tangibility
typology
In
his
pre-theory,
Rosenau
(1966)
suggests
that
foreign
policy
making
and
hence
foreign
policy
behavior
will
vary
according
to
the
size,
devel-
opment,
and
polity
of
a
nation,
whether
it
is
penetrated,
and
the
issue
under
contention.
Since
there
are
so
many
different
issues
that
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