Getting Background Information
Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year.
CQ Press Electronic Library is a collection of resources related to the U.S. Government.
Globalization and Security: an Encyclopedia, (in print) editors, G. Honor Fagan and Ronaldo Munck. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Praeger Security International, 2009.
Widener: WID-LC D763.M47 G56 2009
Statesman's Yearbook Online is a concise guide to world politics, economics and international relations, providing details regarding population, officials, exports, constitutions, governments, diplomatic representatives, religion, finance, and basic histories of nations and states.
News Resources
AllAfrica.com collects and publishes in French and English daily news stories from over 130 African publishers (government and opposition-controlled ,and independent). Harvard's subscription allows access to a searchable news archive from 1997.
Alt-Press Watch is a full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press covering a broad range of subjects.
Associated Press Newsroom (was AP Images) is a primary source database of photographs, audio, graphics and text from the Associated Press.
East View Information Services are a set of full-text databases which include a collection of newspapers from larger cities in Russia as well as a set of regional newspapers.
Ethnic NewsWatch is an interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish), and comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text.
Federal Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports is a United States government agency which translates the text of daily radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and periodicals, government statements, books, and other sources of unrestricted information such as databases and gray literature from non-English sources around the world. Reports with translations are issued for eight world regions daily and cover such topics as military affairs, politics, the environment, societal issues, economics, and science and technology. Online access to daily reports for 1941-1996.
GenderWatch is a full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
Latin American Newsstream provides full-text information in Spanish and Portuguese from 41 newspapers from Puerto Rico and 11 Latin American countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The complete articles are available in ASCII format. Coverage began in 2005, but many titles are indexed since the 1990s.
Nexis Uni provides access to thousands of news sources including: newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services, and broadcast transcripts and international resources in French, Italian, and German.
MideastWire.com provides English summaries, with links to original text as available, of news from 22 Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab media Diaspora.
National Journal’s Dashboard is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; the Daybook, a calendar of U.S. government events; Race Tracker, with data on current and historical political races; and Almanac+, a database of in-depth profiles on policymakers, influencers, and staff.
Finding Scholarly Articles in International Relations
There are hundreds of journal indexes and databses to which the Harvard Library subscribes. One way to find which resources cover a particular field is to search by subject in HOLLIS Databases.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) holds more than 545,000 records on all subjects related to East, Southeast, and South Asia from 1971 to the present (primary disciplines covered are in the humanities and social sciences).
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is designed to be "a comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs." CIAO contains a broad range of scholarly materials published from 1991 onwards, including material from university research institutes, NGOs [non-governmental organizations], foundation-funded research projects and conference proceedings.
East View Information Services is a set of fulltext journal databases on the subjects of politics, government and social sciences in the former Soviet republics, with chief emphasis on Russia.
JSTOR contains full text of core journals in the fields of Political Science and Public Policy from the first volume of the journals up to the most recent 2 to 5 years. In the Advanced Search, use the Journal Filter to narrow your search results to these disciplines; or browse by subject to find lists of journals in the fields of International Relations, Political Science, etc.
LegalTrac indexes the contents of nearly 1000 legal periodicals, including academic law journals, bar association publications, and legal newspapers. It also provides citations to law-related articles from business and general interest titles. LegalTrac covers English-language publications from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the U.K.
ProQuest Government Periodicals Index covers articles in approximately 170 current federal publications. It includes retrospective coverage through 1988 of over 70 additional federal publications that have major research, reference or general interest value.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies is an index to research, policy, and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa.
Military and Government Collection offers current news and scholarly articles pertaining to all branches of the military.
Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) indexes the public and social policy literature of public administration, political science, economics, finance, international relations, law, and health care.
WorldWide Political Science Abstracts indexes the journal literature in political science and its related fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy.
Finding Articles in Interdisciplinary & Related Fields
Multidisciplinary Indexes
Dissertations and Theses Global
Indexes in Related Disciplines
Econlit is a comprehensive index of the world's economic literature, produced by the American Economic Association. It includes coverage of over 600 journals as well as articles in collective volumes, book reviews and dissertations.
Historical Abstracts is a reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life). This database offers annotated references to information on topics from the Renaissance to the present published in over 1800 journals.
Sociological Abstracts is a core resource for researchers, professionals, and students in sociology, social planning/policy, and related disciplines. It covers over 1800 journals, dissertations, selected books and book chapters, and association papers.
Government Documents and Data Resources
Sample resources:
Official Document System of the United Nations (ODS)
Full-text, born-digital UN documents published from 1993 onward, including documents of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiaries. Also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and the General Assembly Official Records.
Includes UN documents, voting data, speeches, maps, and open access publications. The platform provides access to UN-produced materials in digital format and bibliographic records for print UN documents starting in 1979. System features include linked data between related documentation such as resolutions, meeting records and voting, and refining of searches by UN body, agency or type of document. Click on Help at the top of the screen for a detailed guide on how to use the UN Digital Library.
CountryData.com provides over 75 country risk-related variables including political, economic, financial and government stability. Also includes domestic and international economic indicators, social indicators, ICRG Risk Ratings and Coplin-O'Leary Forecasts.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) a suite of global research services that includes: Country Data, Country Finance, Country Forecast, Country Profiles and Country Risk Service.
Research Guides:
Finding Books
Finding Books at Harvard
For tips on using Harvard's library catalog, HOLLIS, see the HOLLIS User Guide.
Finding Books Beyond Harvard
- For an item that Harvard doesn't own, or that is currently checked out by another borrower, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request, and library staff will attempt to borrow it from another institution. It takes an average of 2 weeks for ILL requests to be fulfilled. Interlibrary Loan requires logging in with your Harvard Key.
- If you want to recommend that Harvard acquire a book or electronic resource, you can submit a Purchase Request.