12258. WORLD-SYSTEM AND DISTANCE-DECAY APPROACHES TO GEOPOLITICS. Discusses how these two approaches presume that international politics is "set in its ways." The world-system approach claims that conflict arises because of the exploitations of peripheral nations by core nations. The distance-decay theory is based on the idea that conflict is caused by proximity. It is argues that both approaches contain contradictions, and that both are based on simplistic and inflexible views of the world. \8 pages, 23 footnotes, 5 bibliographic sources.