Library Guides: POLI SCI 124C: Ethics and Justice in International Affairs: News and Gov Info

Government Information

The below sources from U.S. and international governments will provide a wealth of information for your research projects. For more on U.S. diplomatic relations, see our U.S. Foreign Relations Guide.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexing and full-text access for publications of the United States Congress such as hearings, committee reports and prints, CRS reports, as well as executive branch documents. (Congressional Publications) [dates vary]
One stop shopping for all U.S. congressional publications. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including the full-text of published Congressional Hearings (1824-present; unpublished hearings until 1979), Committee Prints (1817-present), Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present), Congressional Record and its predecessor titles (1789-present), U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Maps (1789-present), Executive Branch Documents (1789-1932), Presidential Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present), and Legislative Histories (1969-Present; earlier legislative histories are available via ProQuest's Legislative Insight).
American Presidency Project This link opens in a new window
Search thousands of documents related to historical and current U.S. presidencies, such as speeches, official papers, executive orders, proclamations, news conferences, and press briefings.
Contains all major publications of the U.S. Office of the President, including: Public Papers of the President, Inaugural Addresses, Executive Orders, Signing Statements, and other information such as radio addresses, party platforms, videos of debates, and popularity polling data. This project was developed by two political science professors at UCSB.
Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
Indexes declassified documents spanning fifty years of US national security policy. [1945 - present]
Also includes a chronology, glossary of names, events, special terms, and a bibliography for each collection developed around a specific event, controversy, or policy decision.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
A full-text collection of declassified U. S. government documents.
Documents declassified via the Freedom of Information Act and regular declassification requests, make broad-based and highly targeted investigation of government documents possible. Nearly every major foreign and domestic event of these years is covered. Includes correspondence and memoranda, minutes of cabinet meetings, technical studies, national security policy statements and intelligence reports.
Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) This link opens in a new window
Provides quick access to more than 131,000 open-source resources related to homeland security policy, including U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents, as well as specialized resources such as theses and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies.
Includes over 30,000 records for locally held and linked documents on homeland security strategy, policy and research published by international, federal, state and local government agencies as well as research institutions, universities and think tanks. Subject areas include borders and immigration, infrastructure protection, emergency management, terrorism, and more.
AccessUN: The Readex Index to United Nations Documents This link opens in a new window
Access to this resource will be discontinued effective 02/29/24 due to library budget cuts. (Try instead: UN Digital Library)
Indexes United Nations (UN) documents and publications including Official Records, UN journals, reports, treaties, conferences, draft resolutions, declarations, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and UN Treaty Series. Contains the full text of several thousand UN documents.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) This link opens in a new window
Access to this resource has been discontinued effective 06/30/24 due to library budget cuts. Please use Worldwide Political Science Abstracts or PAIS International as alternative resources. Indexes policy briefs, working papers, maps, course packs, journals, books, videos, internet sources, and conference proceedings from research institutes worldwide related to international affairs theory, analysis, and advocacy. [1991 - present]
Also includes links to international affairs Internet sources.

Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
FRUS presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, the series began in 1861 and now comprises over 350 volumes. The volumes published since 1980 increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies. FRUS is usually published 20-30+ years after the events, so the most recent volumes cover events from the late-1970's, and is available both digitally and in print.

Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 This link opens in a new window
Includes 104 ProQuest microfilm collections; records of the Associated Press's Saigon Bureau, Military Assistance and Advisory Command, Vietnam; and National Security Files from the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations.

Finding Current Government Information

Use the search box below to discover current government information. This box is a customized Google search and will search all .gov and .mil websites.

You can also hack a Google search by adding site:.gov or site:.mil to any search. This will limit your search to those domains. More information on advanced Google searching can be found in the Library's Google Research Made Easy guide.

News Resources

Below are some news and newsmedia databases.

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international news sources. (America's newspapers - NewsBank - global newsbank)
Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources. Offers strong regional coverage, indexing more than California newspapers such as Contra Costa Times (1995-current), Sacramento Bee (1984-current), San Francisco Chronicle (1985-current), and San Jose Mercury News (1985-current). Search categories include: California newspapers (121 titles), Greater Los Angeles (54 titles), major metropolitan titles (13 titles), Spanish-language news sources (48 titles), the World (almost 2000 titles), US (855 titles).
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Text mining of this database is prohibited. Access limited to 49 simultaneous users Provides general and business news and information from more than 9,000 sources in 22 languages, including influential local, national and international newspapers, leading business magazines, trade publications, and news wires.
Includes the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal (1979-present), the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and the Associated Press, as well as Reuters Fundamentals, and Bureau van Dijk company profiles.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to international, national, local newspapers, and wire services, as well as radio and television transcripts. Database also includes business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Also includes laws from the U.S., all 50 states, and law reviews. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pai.
Nexis Uni allows users to set up personal accounts to personalize your research experience. Nexis Uni has replaced LexiNexis Academic. [dates vary]
ProQuest Major Daily Newspapers (Historic & Current) This link opens in a new window
Access to national and regional newspapers from across the U.S.
Includes New York Times (full text, Historical, 1881-1985, with Index, 1851-1993 + 1980-current). Los Angeles Times (full text, Historical, 1881-2010 + 1985-current). Wall Street Journal (full text, Historical, 1889-1995 + 1984-current). Chicago Tribune (full text, Historical 1849-2010 + 1895- current). The Washington Post (full text, Historical, 1877-2002, 1987-current). Also indexes the New York Times Magazine (indexed from 1986-current, full text from 1997), the New York Times Book Review (indexed from 1986-current, full text from 1997), and the WSJ: the Wall Street Journal Magazine (full text from 2011-present).
The Guardian and The Observer This link opens in a new window
These British historical newspapers bring history to life by presenting facts, firsthand accounts, and opinions of the day about the most significant political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events from the past two centuries. [1791 - 2003]
The Guardian and The Observer have reputations for fearless reporting and controversial opinions. The Guardian was first published in response to the Peterloo Massacre. Originally known as the Manchester Guardian, it was a Saturday-only paper until the newspaper stamp duty was repealed in 1855. The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday paper, was first published in 1791. Thought-provoking writers such as GeorgeOrwell, Vita Sackville-West, Clive James, Philip Toynbee, and others were contributors, continuing a tradition of freedom of the press and providing serious coverage of politics and literature.

For a full listing of the Library's news resources, check the drop-down below.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) can provide you a wealth of information from foreign news sources. The U.S. State Department ran the FBIS to translate foreign language newspapers, wires, and broadcasts into English. FBIS only translated information relating to U.S. interests, and only distributed to the public a select amount of what was translated.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports This link opens in a new window
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report includes 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. The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. [1941 - 1996]
Information from thousands of foreign media sources, including political speeches, television and radio broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, and more, offering an extensive collection of military, political, scientific and technical reports from countries around the world, translated into English. The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Coverage is global with the exception of the FBIS Annexes (a supplementary publication created by the U.S. intelligence community to benefit analysts and policy makers from April 1974 through September 1996) and Western European regional broadcasts.

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POLI SCI 124C: Ethics and Justice in International Affairs: News and Gov Info

Government Information

Finding Current Government Information

News Resources

Foreign Broadcast Information Service