Reference Sources for Background Information

General

• The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Clapp Ref HQ1236 .M347 2000
• Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Clapp Docs JC571 .U48a 1978+
• Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy. Clapp Ref E 183.7 E52 2002 3 vols.
• Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II. Clapp Ref  D843 .E46 2007
• Encyclopedia of International Relations and Global Politics. Clapp Ref JZ 1160 .E53 2005.
• Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Clapp Ref BL65.P7 E53 2007 2 vols.
• Europa World Year Book. Clapp Ref JN1 .E85. Good for country histories and basic statistics.
• Oxford Companion to Politics of the World. Clapp Ref JA 61 .O95 2001
• Oxford Handbook on the United Nations. Clapp Ref JZ4970 .O93 2008

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic, then when you find a useful title, see what its subject headings are. Then click on these subject headings to find more about your topic.

Another technique for finding similar books: Once you have found a useful record in the catalog, you can click on the call number and then view the "extended display". This is as if you are looking at the books on the shelf.

A basic book on a country may be useful as an introduction. In our catalog, under title, look for [country name] a country study, or look for them online from the Library of Congress, or use Portals to the World.

Try the following subject headings and their subheadings:

world politics (and its various subheadings)
international relations (and its various subheadings)
[country name] foreign relations
[country name] relations foreign countries
foreign relations [country name]
commercial treaties [country name]
environmental policy international cooperation
environmental policy [country name]
environmental protection international cooperation
human rights [country name]

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Articles

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

The databases listed below are general scholarly and social science databases. Depending on what topic you choose, other databases may also be useful. See our A-Z list for additional databases; think of which database will have the information for the approach you want. If you get stuck, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

Look for ways to limit your search (by date, by subject headings, to scholarly or peer-reviewed sources).

Suggested databases for this class (listed in order of usefulness):

PAIS - articles about political, social & economic issues, public affairs from 1937+. Index and abstracts only.

CIAO [Columbia International Affairs Online] - theory and research in international affairs from 1991 onward. Includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. Note: using the advanced search feature will yield much better results. Note: working papers and policy papers are full text. Books and journal articles are selected full text. Search for the book or journal title in our catalog to see if we have access to the full text. Otherwise, use Interlibrary Loan.

Academic Search Complete and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline Selected full text.

Periodicals Index Online (PIO) - index to articles published in 4,698 periodicals in the humanities & social sciences in 40 languages. Full text available to over 200 journals. Covers 1665-1995.

Web of Science (and Social Science) - 1965+. Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social, physical, and life sciences. Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books.

JSTOR - Full text collection of humanities, social science & natural science journals, from first issues but not latest 5 years

News Sources

LexisNexis Academic News - U.S. and International news from 1980s+. To search for newspapers from specific parts of the world, use the news category of World News and then select the news source to be the area of the world you want.

Westlaw Campus Research - similar to LexisNexis Academic, but may have unique content. Contains World news Connection (foreign news translations) from 12/2003 onward.

PressDisplay for articles from newspapers throughout the world from the past 45 days and in the native language.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Collection (FBIS) - Broadcasts, news agency transmissions, and government statements from around the globe translated into English, 1974-1996. Note: this is a work in progress, all regions may not be completed.

Speeches

You may find references in newspaper or journal articles to a country's foreign policy in speeches made by representatives of its government. See me if you have trouble locating the speech for which you have a reference. Sources for speeches:

• newspapers through LexisNexis Academic News (above)
• on the country's Web site
• before the United Nations
• on an embassy Web site

Scholarly Web Resources

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

General

• Global Policy Forum - one-stop shopping for articles on current global policy topics
• Governments on the WWW - The best source I have found for links to detailed agencies within a government.
• Multilaterals Project - begun in 1992, is an ongoing project at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, to make available the texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments. Although the project was initiated to improve public access to environmental agreements, the collection today also includes treaties in the fields of human rights, commerce and trade, laws of war and arms control, and other areas. Most of the texts date from 1945 or later, but the collection also includes historical texts, from the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia to the Covenant of the League of Nations. The collection is organized by topic, by date, and searchable by keyword.
• U.S. Council on Foreign Relations - a nonpartisan and independent membership organization, the Council has promoted understanding of foreign policy and America’s role in the world since its founding in 1921.
• UNBISNET [United Nations Bibliographic Information System] - links to full text and citations of United Nations publications.

Environment

• Pol3 325 International Environmental Law
• Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI)
• Multilateral Environment Agreements [UNEP]

Human Rights

• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Caution: this site is not well dated. Make sure you know the date of whatever information you find.
• United Nations Human Rights research guide.
• Summary of United Nations Agreements on Human Rights
• Human rights law, human rights bodies, information on countries, and Treaty Body database [UN High Commissioner for Human Rights]
• United Nations human rights treaties
• United Nations Human Rights Treaty Information Portal

Nuclear Nonproliferation

• Arms Control Agreements [Federation of American Scientists]
• U.S. Dept. of State Bureau of Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) and Treaties and Agreements
• Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
• World Nuclear Association - "global private-sector organization that seeks to promote the peaceful worldwide use of nuclear power as a sustainable energy resource for the coming centuries."

Trade

• National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade - treaties, free-trade agreements, and international agreements
• Trade Policy Reviews from the World Trade Organization.

Citing Your Information

Remember: if you find the full text online, you must cite the online source. Look for information within our Wellesley databases, or electronic books, on how to cite what you find.

There is a collection of style guides at the Clapp Reference desk. Also visit our Citation Style Guides page.

Wellesley has a citation management software tool called EndNote. You can download the software and look at the documentation.

Research Guide for International Relations

See also the Resources by Subject pages for Political Science and Legal Studies for more law and legislative information.

Return to Resources by Subject