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Country Background Information

These sources will give you a general background about your country and its broad social and political environment to help you frame the reset of your research. Many will also give you general statistics and directory information about government officials. Print resources can give you the best and most concise picture of your country. Be sure to check the publishing dates to be sure you are getting the information you need.

Online Resources

  • Political Risk Yearbook
    Lengthy analysis of a country's political and economic climate and risks, the Political Risk Yearbook is unique in that it provides forecasts on likely political and economic developments. Each Country Report focuses specifically on political and business information: finding developing markets, determining currency movements, preparing for capital investments, or making judgments about corporate security.

  • Political Handbook of the World
    Annual survey of government, regional issues, and international organizations. Good source for background information about countries and organizations and for an overview of the year's political events. Includes some statistics.

  • Political Parties of the World
    A country-by-country look at the major political parties. Lists web sites for parties if they are available.

  • Countries and their Cultures
    A four-volume encyclopedia that focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information.
    Other useful encyclopedias include:

    All of the titles above are included in the Gale Virtual Reference Library

  • Armed Conflict Database
    Provides an interactive source of information on a wide range of conflicts including terrorism, refugees, and returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), weapons flows, fatalities, costs (U.S. Dollars), historical backgrounds, annual updates and timelines. Users can generate reports and download data as well as browse through year-by-year analyses and fact sheets online.

  • Country Studies/Area Handbook Series (Library of Congress)
    Book-length works covering the history, politics, geography, and economy of individual countries. Some are dated and therefore most useful for getting an historical perspective. To locate the these resources, search the CAT using Area Handbook Series as your search term. Some are available on the Web at the Library of Congress' Country Studies Web site.

  • Background Notes
    Short (4-5 page) overviews of the government and politics of various countries. Prepared for U.S. Department of State personnel on diplomatic missions.

  • Post Reports
    Designed for State Department personnel stationed at embassies and consulates, these can provide insight into a country, and are particularly helpful in that they describe some major cities as well as the country. Most recent versions are not available to the public, but previous versions are available via eDiplomat, a commercial web site.

  • Embassies and Consulates
    embassies and consulates often provide country descriptions and/or data (often in English) as well as links to government sites in their home countries. Some sources for lists of embassies:

Print Encyclopedias and Handbooks

The Libraries have many specialized encyclopedias that may be of help. Consult The CAT to locate more of these.

Trade Barriers

Trade Statistics

Trade Statistics are available from a number of print and online publications. Below is a partial list of some places to begin searching for statistics. If you are not locating what you need, please contact the Social Sciences Library for further assistance.

  • UN Comtrade
    Comtrade provides commodity trade data for all available countries and areas since 1962. Currently, it contains almost 700 millions records.

  • International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)
    An agency of UNCTAD and WTO. Has statistical data and background information. Click on countries to get a profile of trade and trade statistics for your country.

  • UNSTATS
    UNSTATS provides data on a wide range of social and economic data series from 30 specialized international intergovernmental agencies including POPIN, World Bank, IMF, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNICEF, and WHO. Data can be displayed in HTML or downloaded in Excel or CSV format.

  • WDI (World Development Indicators)
    World Development Indicators includes nearly 800 statistical indicators related to social and economic development. It is organized in six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. The tables cover 152 economies and 14 country groups - with basic indicators for a further 55 economies. Data can be downloaded for further manipulation.

  • MBS Online (International Statistics)
    The Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (MBS) includes detailed economic, industrial, trade, and population statistics (monthly or quarterly) from more than 200 countries. Data may be graphed, printed, or downloaded. Compiled by the United Nations.

  • SourceOECD (economic policy)
    The statistical module of this database includes many of the data sets available from the OECD, including significant data on economic and trade issues.

  • STAT-USA Internet
    STAT-USA/Internet, a service of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the site for the U.S. business, economic and trade community, providing authoritative information from the Federal government.

  • UNCTAD Statistical Databases
    The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) maintains a number of statistical databases, including:

    • UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics
    • Foreign Direct Investment Database
    • Commodity Price Statistics
    • UNCTAD-Trains (TRade Analysis and INformation System)

  • TableBase (business/marketing)
    TableBase provides tabular and statistical data on companies, industries, products, and demographics. Subject areas include market share, company and brand rankings, industry and product forecasts, imports and exports, production and consumption statistics, number of users, and trends. Ninety percent of the records are full-text. It is international in scope and is updated weekly.

  • LexisNexis Statistical
    LexisNexis Statistical is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal government and international organization publications. In addition, it also links to 800 full-text documents published since 1994 and stored at LexisNexis and links to 2,000 publications on agency Web sites. The University Libraries own most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. ASK for assistance locating information at any University Library Service Desk.

Print Resources

Find Journal Articles

Journal articles often provide the most up-to-date and in-depth information on the topics you are researching. The databases listed below are available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account:

Political Science and International Relations databases

Interdisciplinary Databases

Though not primarily Political Science and International Relations databases, these contain significant full-text holdings:

  • Project Muse

  • Ingenta -- an all-purpose database with many full-text journals and rapid delivery of articles from journals not in the Penn State Libraries.

  • JSTOR -- a full-text journal database. Generally DOES NOT have the most recent issues of journals but does have extensive historical volumes of key journals.

Have a citation? Citation Linker will help you determine if the article appears full-text in any of the databases to which the Libraries subscribe.

Key Trade Organizations

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Contact

Subject Specialist
International Relations
Helen M. Sheehy
814-863-1347

Social Sciences Library
814-865-4861
AIM: socscilib

or your Commonwealth Campus Library.



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