Academics at MBC
Links
News sources:
- Al Jazeera (Qatar). English language version of Middle East's most influential independent news source.
- British Broadcast Corporation, BBC, offers daily news as text, video and in 43 languages.
- Christian Science Monitor is the free daily online edition of the respected newspaper; web archives are searchable from 1980 onward, but require paying a fee to read the articles found.
- CNN World News presents print and audio versions of up-to-the-minute news stories on all major world regions, and on U.S. foreign policy.
- Economist Online contains the full text of the influential British news weekly. Excellent coverage of British politics and world affairs; searchable archives of articles from 1995 onward.
- Euro News service contains text and video news from the European continent; covers the whole world.
- I.T.N., independent television news service, from London U.K.
- Jerusalem Post: extensive news and editorial commentary from Israel.
- Lexis-Nexis, entered through MBC's Grafton Library, allows access for MBC students (only; ID number required) to hundreds of U.S. and international newspapers and more.
- Los Angeles Times provides national, international and California news from America's second largest city. News stories within two weeks are free; older archived articles require paying a fee.
- New York Times Full text of the most current issue of the paper is presented, but the site requires users to register to access the archives.
- PBS Newshour provides transcripts of its recent television broadcasts, and searchable archives of past programs.
- Time Magazine Daily is a continuously updated version of the popular news weekly. Includes searchable archives of the U.S. edition (since 1994), and of the international edition (since 1995).
- US News and World Report Daily also offers the views of this national newsmagazine in an online form. Searchable archives permit searches from 1997 to the present.
- Washington Post is the Online version of the daily paper. The website supports searches of the archives back to 1977. Readers may read for free, but must pay a fee to download whole articles older than two weeks.
Specialized Tools for Studying U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign policy:
- Brookings Institution online books provides full text versions of recent books from this respected Washington DC think tank. Useful for research into U.S. defense policy and U.S. international and foreign policy.
- C.I.A Factbook of the Countries of the World.
- C.I.A. Special Advisors' Reports to the Director of Central Intelligence
- C.I.A. Declassified Documents electronic reading room: enter key words and search for relevant materials.
- Department of State Research Reports offers links to treaties, human rights reports, biographies of personnel and much more related to U.S. foreign policy. This is an archive site, 1993-97; another official archive for materials to January 2001 is here. Consult the current Department of State website for materials since that date.
- Rand Corporation Studies on Terrorism. Most were written on U.S. Government contract basis.
- The Federation of American Scientists, offers separate web resources on U.S. Arms Sales, the U.S. Intelligence Community, Government Secrecy, and many other projects; searchable archives start in 1990.
- National Vital Statistics Reports from the U.S. Federal Government's Center for Disease Control (C.D.C.).
- Census Bureau Factfinder: rapidly learn about basic demographic, income, housing characteristics, and other facts on any state, city, town, county, zip code, or the entire USA.
- Roll Call provides detailed information on current legislation and events in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Editorial commentaries by noted experts also are included.
- Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2004, is a full text study done by the Congressional Research Service which enumerates and briefly details uses of U.S. military forces abroad, 1798-2004. Links lead to vast resources on historic conflicts involving the U.S. Navy at the Naval Historical Center. (A 1993 version of Uses of U.S. Armed Forces Abroad also is available).
- Information on State Governments from the 50 states. Also, a Virginia General Assembly website posts pending legislation and other information useful in studying Virginia politics.
- American Spectator since 1977 has been the journal of conservative R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. and others. Archive since Jan. 1992 accessible for free via Lexis-Nexis.
- Commentary, the conservative and Jewish monthly, offers a portion of the print version online, and archives of past issues from August 1996 onward. Archive since Dec. 1992 accessible for free via Expanded Academic Index.
- The Nation magazine. Published since 1865, The Nation articulates a leftist perspective on national and international affairs. Archive since 1984 accessible via Expanded Academic Index.
- National Review is "America's Conservative Magazine." Full text of a small number of articles from the print version of the magazine are provided. Archive since Jan. 1984 accessible via Expanded Academic Index.
- New Democrats Online presents the views of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council.
- The New Republic includes full text of the current edition and archives of America's most influential weekly journal of moderate opinion. Registration required. Archive since Jan. 1984 accessible via Expanded Academic Index.
- The Weekly Standard presents analysis of news and politics from a mainstream Republican perspective. Archive since Dec. 1994 accessible via Lexis-Nexis.
Public Opinion Research Tools:
- Gallup Poll provides polls of Americans' views, and provides selected foreign nations' polls.
- Lexis-Nexis, entered through MBC's Grafton Library Journals Database, allows access for MBC students only (ID number required). To view hundreds of public opinion polls, go to Lexis-Nexis, then to "reference," then to "polls and surveys."
- PIPA, the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland issues numerous useful studies on Americans' views of world problems.
- The PEW Center for the People and the Press. Provides extensive original polls and analysis thereof; both U.S. publics and foreign publics are surveyed.
- Roper Center provides additional current polls and archives which are searchable back a half century and more.
Research Tools for studying
Comparative Politics,Third World Politics, and International Relations:
Resources on human rights conditions:
- Amnesty International publishes annual reports on human rights conditions in all major and minor world states; full text of all reports, 1993 onward, are available. Also gives access to A.I.'s library of special reports and Urgent Action notices, organized by country and archived back to 1996.
- Freedom House publishes annual assessments of the condition of democratic freedoms in all major and minor world states, as well as other irregularly issued studies on specific states, religious freedoms, etc. Yearly reports cover:
- Freedom in the World 2003. Surveys each of 192 world states in terms of political rights and civil liberties. Provides links to "Freedom in the World" reports for each year since 1999.
- Freedom of the Press 2003. Contains introductory essays on selected topics and country-by-country ratings for world states.
- Nations in Transit 2003. Focuses on the 27 former communist states of East Central Europe and the former USSR. Back issues from 1998 onward also are linked.
- Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights interest group, gives detailed country reports on human rights problems worldwide. Reports vary in frequency by country; many other irregularly issued documents also are accessible.
- United States Department of State: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Issued annually in February-March for the preceding year. Archive of 1999 onward is at this address. To access earlier reports from 1993 through 1999, go here.
Other Resources on International Problems:
- Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index: Yearly comparative rankings of world states regarding political freedoms and economic performance indicators from authoritative German think tank; also provides country reports on many nations.
- International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) monitors and reports for the U.N. on compliance of states with their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.), which bars non-peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
- The Coalition for an International Criminal Court, a private NGO, presents information related to the U.N.'s process of creating a permanent criminal court for war crimes.
- Jane's from London offers information and analysis about the military forces of the states of the world, and other valuable resources useful in assessing states' power and related issues. Requires subscription to access full text of some reports.
- Latin America: Political Database at Georgetown University provides links to journals, archives and data bases on the Americas. Primary documents and reference materials are provided. Detailed information by country on constitutions and legal systems, elections, political parties, civil society, political institutions and more.
- Latin American Information Center at University of Texas provides vast searchable resources on all countries in the Americas. Documents in English and Spanish, plus some Portuguese. Links organized by country, and by topic (e.g., government, military, human rights, political science, media, social sciences, and much more).
- The Library of Congress' Country Studies, a collection of analytical portraits of the world's states, are available here. Inconsistencies in collection mar its utility: e.g., the Iraq study was done in 1988; the Afghanistan one was done in 1997).
- National Security Archive, a private archive at George Washington University, provides declassified secret documents on U.S. foreign policy, and some analysis of the documents exhibited.
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supplies information on the key U.S. alliance, and on ongoing projects such as the SFOR mission in Bosnia and the KFOR mission in Kosovo. Searchable.
- Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is the official international organization of nearly all European and former Soviet states. Provides official reports of observer missions sent to assess electoral processes and many irregularly issued documents on varied human rights concerns. Most resources available are full text.
- Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty offers daily news coverage of the Balkans, Central Europe, Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union. Searchable and well organized archives from 1997 (and earlier archives include all Daily Reports since 1991); live audio news is focused on needs of non-English speakers.
- United Nations Homepage leads to many interesting sites, including the UNSCOM project (to 1999) to verify destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and chronology of that process. Includes links to U.N. Security Council Resolutions on Iraq, but only to December 1999.
- War Crimes Tribunal (I.C.T.Y.): This official site of the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia chronicles pending and completed trials for war crimes from the court in The Hague (Netherlands).
- Warlinks: A set of links to websites, speeches, specialized news sources, online studies, and other materials related to the War on Terrorism. Maintained by MBC's Prof. Bowen.
Political Science Research Journals
- Foreign Affairs provides full text of some current and archived articles, summaries of others. Archive since 1923 accessible from ABI/INFORM
- Foreign Policy provides abstracts and some full text articles; archives posted since 1997. Archive since Dec. 1992 accessible from Expanded Academic Index.
- Governing is the online, full text version of the journal focused on state and local government, politics, and administration.
- Political Science Quarterly offers a few full text articles and reviews on both American and comparative / international politics. Archives available: 1886-1999 in JSTOR; 1993-present in Expanded Academic Index.
- World Politics provides only abstracts of recent articles. Archives available: 1948-1995 in JSTOR; 1949-present in MBC Library.
- Advancing Women in Leadership presents full text articles of research on women and leadership.
- WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs is a site with many helpful links, maintained at Elizabethtown University.
- Library of Congress Homepage provides users access to many exhibits and collections, notably the Thomas system of information about the U.S. Congress and its members' pending legislative proposals.]
- Libraries throughout the U.S.
- University of Virginia Library
Sites for Studying Women in U.S. Politics:
- Center for American Women and Politics, located in the Eagleton institute of Rutgers University, provides factual information and analytical reports concerning women in government, politics, and women's electoral behavior.
- Distinguished Women's Biographies, historic and contemporary, can be found at this site.
- Emily's List provides analysis of candidates and electoral races.
- Feminist Majority Foundation is a clearinghouse site, frequently updated with information and views on many topics.
- National Organization for Women (NOW) provides information, analysis and commentary on many issues.
- National Women's Political Caucus gives analysis of issues and candidates from a "multi-partisan" perspective.
Sites for Studying U.S. Public Law and Constitutional Law
- Cornell Law's Supreme Court Decisions gives access to the full text of opinions written since 1990, and much more.
- Duke Law Journal is searchable, full text, and archived since March 1997.
- Federal Courts Law Review is an electronic journal published by the Federal Magistrate Judges Association; searchable and archived for several years.
- FindLaw is an indispensable website, with links to law schools, U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1893 to the present, and much more.
- Law Library Research Exchange is a clearinghouse site that addresses the changing mode of legal research in the electronic age. Many valuable articles and links are included.
- Washington University (St. Louis, MO) Law Quarterly is searchable since 1997.
