General Reference & Resources

• Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)

• Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

World News and Media by Country

• Defense Link
• Defense News
• Foreign Affairs
• Foreign Policy
• Economist

• CNN world news
• BBC News, world edition

• Google world news

• Current Event Maps, U. of Texas

• Associated Press (AP) world news
• Reuters world news

• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) -- "FBIS collects and translates current political, economic, technical, and military information from the media worldwide for the U.S. government. Access to FBIS information is limited to the U.S. Government agencies and their contractors."

• Kidon Media Link
  • Africa - news sources online
  • Americas - news sources online
  • Asia - news sources online
  • Europe - news sources online
  • Oceania - news sources online

• News and Media, by country, listed by Yahoo!

• Newspapers by Region/Country, from the Internet Public Library

• ABYZ News Links by country

International Statistics

• International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau - includes population clocks, HIV/AIDS data, socioeconomic research, etc.
  • Countries Ranked by Population 1950-2050
  • Other demographics, such as current and projected age distribution within each country

• Statistics Division of the United Nations
  • Demographic and Social Statistics - Statistics Division of the United Nations

Governments, Embassies, and Documents

• Foreign Government Resources on the Web, by U. of Mich.

• Constitutions of the World

• Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, as listed by CIA - updated weekly

• Embassy Web, web sites of U.S. and other countries worldwide, with search capability by embassy owner and host country
• The Electronic Embassy, guide to Washington, D.C., foreign embassy community

• International Documents Task Force (IDTF), American Library Association Government Documents Round Table, with extensive lists of foreign government links and nongovernmental links

• Countries and Regions pages, State Dept

Region and Country Briefs

• Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources, Library of Congress
• Library of Congress Portals to the World
• Library of Congress, Country Studies, all aspects, from historical to cultural to political -- built-in search engine -- recently added the countries of Central Asia, although info often is only as new as 1996

• Countries and Regions pages, State Dept
• State Dept International Information Programs (IIP)
• State Department Background Notes "are factual publications that contain information on all the countries of the world with which the United States has relations"

• CIA World Factbook

• LingNet "is a service provided by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. LingNet hosts materials developed at DLI by the Curriculum Development Division. These include both the "Countries in Perspective" series and the Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS). The LingNet web site also hosts materials developed by other government and Department of Defense agencies."

• Country Briefings/News from The Economist

U.S. State Department

• The State Dept, main page

• Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization
  • On August 5, 2004, Secretary Powell announced the creation of the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) to enhance our nation's institutional capacity to respond to crises involving failed, failing, and post-conflict states and complex emergencies.
  • S/CRS has a core mission: To lead and coordinate U.S. Government planning, and institutionalize U.S. capacity, to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife so they can reach a sustainable path toward peace, democracy and a market economy.

• Websites of U.S. Embassies and Consulates, State Dept

• Countries and Regions pages, State Dept

• State Department Background Notes "are factual publications that contain information on all the countries of the world with which the United States has relations"

• State Dept International Information Programs (IIP)
  • Washington File

  • African Issues
  • The Americas
  • East Asia - Pacific Issues
  • Europe, Russia and the NIS
  • Middle East - North Africa
  • South Asia

  • Response to Terrorism
  • Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
  • Electronic Journals in 6 languages

• Counterterrorism Office, State Dept
• Patterns of Global Terrorism

• Office of International Religious Freedom
  • Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, submitted to Congress by State Department .

International Relief & Disaster Assistance

• See also Foreign Assistance, Foreign Aid on U.S. Government page

• See also NGOs on International Studies page

• ReliefWeb "is the global hub for time-critical humanitarian information on Complex Emergencies and Natural Disasters"

• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  • check under the coordination section for
    • Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP)
    • Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
    • United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC)
    • International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG)
    • Geographic Information Support Teams (GIST)
• United Nations Volunteers (UNV)

• State Department

• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) - includes guide to donating to reputable charities and organizations helping international relief efforts, such as for the tsunami relief

• USA Freedom Corps - including international relief and aid

• Some available reporting organizations concerning charities
  - no endorsement is implied for any reports or opinions at following sites
  • Charity Navigator - independent charity evaluator
  • GuideStar - database of nonprofits
  • InterAction - American Council for Voluntary International Action

CIA

• CIA Publications and Reports
• Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, as listed by CIA - updated weekly
• Languages, by Country, CIA World Factbook
• CIA World Factbook includes
  • CIA World Factbook, Country Briefs, incl map/flag and demographics
  • CIA World Factbook, Maps, by region

Library of Congress

• African and Middle Eastern Reading Room
• African and Middle Eastern Internet Resources
• Asian Reading Room
• European Reading Room
• Hispanic Reading Room - includes Handbook of Latin American Studies

• Library of Congress Portals to the World, usually seems to have newer material than the Country Studies below

• Library of Congress, Country Studies, all aspects, from historical to cultural to political -- built-in search engine -- recently added the countries of Central Asia, although info often is only as new as 1996 - but very well done and easy-to-read summaries of history and culture and politics in each country

• Romanization Tables: Transliteration Schemes for Non-Roman Scripts

Treaties & Agreements

• Treaties in Force, State Department
  
  "This publication list treaties and other international agreements of the United States on record in the Department of State."

• Arms Control and Nonproliferation: A Catalog of Treaties and Agreements, Congressional Research Service report

• Treaties and Other International Agreements: The Role of the United States Senate (PDF) (HTM)

• Treaties section of Law Library of Library of Congress

• Protocol for the Modern Diplomat, State Department - includes Glossary of Diplomatic Terms at the end
• Arms Control and Disarmament Glossary of Terms, State Department

• U.N. Treaty Collection
• United Nations Treaty Reference Guide
• UN Treaty Handbook Glossary

• See also Selected Treaties - full text, at USAF Counterproliferation Center

Human Rights

• See also laws of war

• U.S. State Department
  • Human Rights, U.S. State Department site
  • Country Reports on Human Rights, annual reports by U.S. State Department
  • Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record, reports to Congress by the State Department - complements the annual country reports
  • Office of International Religious Freedom
    • Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, submitted to Congress by State Department .

• United Nations
  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights
    (alternate location)
    (local copy of English version)
  • Human Rights, United Nations site
  • International Human Rights Instruments

• Human Rights Watch (HRW)

• Amnesty International

• Human Rights Web

• Human Rights Internet

• other resources on international human rights

U.S. Government and DoD Regional Study Centers

• Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)
• Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA)
• Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS)
• Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies
• George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

• Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy - includes biannual newsletter and other publications

• Center for Global Security Research (CGSR), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

DoD and Military Links

• Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) - check Publications for regional and global articles

• Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs

• Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) -- "The DSCA mission includes timely and effective direction, supervision, and oversight of security cooperation programs in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives; promotion of stable security relationships with friends and allies through military assistance, including the sale of defense articles and services; humanitarian assistance and demining; and other related programs such as the Warsaw Initiative."

• Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management (DISAM) -- "As an element of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, DISAM serves as the centralized Department of Defense (DoD) school for the consolidated professional education of personnel involved in security cooperation management."

• See Unified Commands -- regional commands have news and exercises and other info about regional initiatives

• Allied Contributions to the Common Defense, current and past annual reports
• Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies

• Center for Contemporary Conflict (CCC) - resources and links - for regional issues, homeland security, and wmd proliferation

• List of Worldwide US Military Installations

History & Culture Resources

• History Studies, incl by region/country, WWW Virtual Library
• HyperHistory Online, with interactive maps and timelines
• Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University, "acquires, preserves, and makes available research resources in areas of human rights, communism, and the Cold War"
• See also History section of Gateway

• NativeWeb, "resources for indigenous cultures around the world"

• Museums online, list from the World Wide Web Virtual Library
• The National Palace Museum, 7,000 years of Chinese history
• Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Univ. of Memphis
• Asian Arts, "online journal for the study and exhibition of the arts of Asia"
• African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning
• Revelations from the Russian Archives, Library of Congress exhibit about the entire Soviet/Russian communist era
• Creating French Culture, Library of Congress exhibit

World Wide Web Virtual Library (WWW VL)

• Regional Studies, WWW Virtual Library
• History Studies, incl by region/country, WWW Virtual Library
• International Affairs Resources, part of WWW Virtual Library

• African Studies, WWW VL
• Asian Studies, WWW VL
• Latin American Studies, U. of Texas, WWW VL
• Middle East Studies, Columbia U., WWW VL
• Center for Middle Eastern Studies, U. of Texas, WWW VL
• Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, WWW VL
• Pacific Studies, WWW VL
• REESWeb: Russian and East European Studies, U. of Pittsburgh, WWW VL
• West European Studies Home Page, U. of Pittsburgh, WWW VL

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