Guides: Political Science: International Security & Conflicts

Databases, reports, web resources

Best Bets

Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
A database containing over 500,000 pages of declassified documents gathered through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The DNSA archive contains a range of policy documents including presidential memos, meeting notes, briefing papers, White House communications, email, letters, and other secret material detailing U.S.foreign and military policy since 1945. Topics include the Koreas, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Cuba, nuclear proliferation, among many others. See also smaller open access version from George Washington University.

Homeland Security Digital Library
Provides 'access to important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents...and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies.' Includes over 18,000 CRS Reports.

Gale OneFile: Military and Intelligence This link opens in a new window

Additional Resources

Africa Center for Strategic Studies
"The pre-eminent Department of Defense institution for strategic security studies, research, and outreach in Africa."
Annual Review of Global Peace Operations
Published by Center on International Cooperation. Provides descriptions of UN missions and gives detailed statistics (troops, fatalities, expenditures, etc.) on UN missions and some statistics on non-UN missions.
Davis Family Library Reference JZ6374 .A56 2006 (check NExpress for more recent issues)
CIA Historical Collections
Declassified, historically significant CIA documents. Wide range of collections including Bay of Pigs, Korean War, Bosnia, Warsaw Pact, Czech invasion, Camp David accords, and much more.

CIAO - Columbia International Affairs Online Journals This link opens in a new window
A selection of full-text books, conference reports, and working papers on international affairs.

Correlates of War (COW)
Access to a variety of conflict-related datasets. Data is coded and users will need to consult codebooks to interpret the variables. See also World Handbook of Politics IV for another set of country-level contentious politics event data.
Country Reports on Terrorism
Annual publication from the U. S. Department of State, 2004 to date. Preceded by Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1995 - 2003. Includes profiles of foreign terrorist organizations.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Forecasts
Text of reports searchable from ProQuest from 2009 - present. Follow link to see available countries. Tip: search by country name and sort by latest date.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Viewswire
"Comprehensive, extensively researched analytical service covering politics, economics, business and finance, that is updated daily."
Fragile States & State Resilience Indexes
From Fund for Peace. Also see their Fragile States annual reports. "The report includes an overview article, methodological definitions, country case study articles, and thematic articles explaining how the index can be applied in peacebuilding, WPS work, and climate and conflict."
Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
From START (Nat'l Consortium for the Study of Terrorism & Responses to Terrorism) at Univ. of Maryland. Includes information and data on domestic and international terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2013 (with annual updates). See also additional resources and datasets from START.
Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site
Compiled by Paul R. Hensel. Includes a variety of political and economic data sources including those related to conflicts and disputes, human rights, terrorism, trade, investment, environment, countries, treaties, democracy, and much more.
Military Balance (Int'l Institute for Strategic Studies)
1997 - current online. Earlier years in library stacks. Provides an assessment of the military forces and defense expenditures for countries. Also See SIPRI resources
SIPRI International Security Databases
Databases include military expenditures for 165 countries since 1988; arms transfers since 1950; SIPRI 100 (largest arms producing companies); mulitlateral peace operations; and more.
SIPRI Yearbook (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)
Covers developments in arms control, disarmament, military spending, and international security. Online: 2010 - present. Print: 1977; 1984 - 2009: Davis Family Library UA10 .S69.
Uppsala Conflict Database (UCDP)
Commentary and facts on armed conflicts around the world since 1989. Updated annually (free database from Uppsala Universitet). Alternative version (datasets for download).
Warfare and Armed Conflicts : a Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500-2000
Davis Family Library Reference D214 .C54 2001
World Almanac of Islamism
This database focuses on the nature of the contemporary Islamist threat around the world, and on the current activities of radical Islamist movements worldwide.' Browse by Country/Region or Movement.
World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers
The annual 'World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers' (WMEAT) provides annual military expenditures, arms transfers, armed forces, selected economic data, and relative indicators consisting of pertinent military-economic ratios. The data is accompanied by analyses and highlights.
Earlier editions in Govt. Docs. AC1.16:
Yearbook of the United Nations
Online from the United Nations, 1946 - present.

Directories of Web Resources

WWW Virtual Library - International Affairs
"Over 2000 carefully selected, annotated links in 34 international affairs categories."