Transaction analysis

Transactions are contacts or dealings. In international relations, for example, transactions have to do with contacts and dealings, both governmental and nongovernmental, between states. Transactions may, for example, be analyzed with respect to substance (e.g. concerning economic, political, cultural, social or technical matters), or with respect to the states involved and the directions of the transactions between them. The volume and frequency of such transactions is also considered. From such information, permutations of substance, direction, intensity, and time define patterns of transaction flow, and these in turn describe structure and process in the international system. Analysing transaction flows then theoretically opens the way to observing and recording who deals (or has dealt) with whom, how, or how much, about what, and when (and under some circumstances, provide projections of probable transaction patterns in the future). Different transformations of the basic data may be used to measure relative direction, relative intensity, dependence, interdependence, partnership, concentration, acceleration, and other quantities or qualities in transaction relationships. Transaction analysis may be used to detect international or regional integration and community formation.