Linkage is measured by the following four components:

1. Economic Ties: Measured by the extent of trade with the United States and 15 EU member countries (exports and imports over GDP) (log) (1990–2000), excluding years when a country is democratic.

2. Social Ties: Measured by the average annual number of a country's citizens traveling to or living in the U.S. and EU (1990–2000) as a share of total country population (log), excluding years when a country is democratic.

3. Communication Ties: Measured by per capita average annual international voice traffic 1993–2000 (log) and per capita average annual Internet access (1995–2000) (log), excluding years when a country is democratic.

4. Intergovernmental Ties: Measured by membership in the Organization of American States (OAS) or potential membership in the EU.

For each of the four dimensions, each country is given a score (1–5) based on its ranking relative to all non-Western countries in the world (5 = highest quintile; 1 = lowest quintile). The scores on the four dimensions are summed into a total score, which was recalculated so that scores range from 0 to 1.