ABSTRACT
The formal representation of international economic linkages is a vital part of GLOBUS, for these ties are central to the global nature of the overall model itself. Trade leads us to think on a worldwide scale for two reasons. First, by treating these relationships, we move our perspective beyond the individual nation-state. Second, international economic linkages are a central, defining feature of the world system itself. No economy in the contemporary world is self-sufficient and the distribution of economic activity is on a global basis. While it is true that we can speak of (and model) individual national economies, all modern state economies are more or less open. The representation of such systems, therefore, can only be closed by specifying their linkages to the outside world.
