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Reference Sources: Information About Foreign Countries

Jump to:
Officials & Embassies | Country Information | U.S. Foreign Relations |
Trade | U.S. Federal Agencies | Strategies to Find More

Officials, Consulates/Embassies

• World Leaders: Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Government.
• Websites of Foreign Embassies in the United States.
• Foreign Consular Offices in the United States.
• Diplomatic List lists, by country, the members of diplomatic missions in the United States who have diplomatic rank, with consulate/embassy address.
• United States Embassies and Consulates in other countries
• Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts lists United States Foreign Service assignments. (PDF; use Adobe Reader).

Information about a specific country

• Background Notes (State Department)
• World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
• Countries and Regions (State Department)
• Country Studies are available online for 101 countries/regions; more recent Country Profiles are available for some countries. (Library of Congress' Federal Research Division).
• Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations includes country by country information.
• Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
• Country Reports on Terrorism
• Advancing Freedom and Democracy Reports (State Department)
• International Religious Freedom.
• United States Institute of Peace Reports
• International Data Base (Census Bureau). Computerized data bank containing statistical tables of demographic and socio-economic data for 228 countries and areas of the world.
• International Statistical Agencies United States Census Bureau list of the national statistics offices of other countries.
• Foreign Exchange Rates (Federal Reserve). Daily update release with links to historical data.
• Foreign Labor Statistics Home Page
• Export.gov's Market Research. Note: please also see the Foreign Trade section below for more trade-related material.
• National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers. See also the Document Library from the Office of the United States Trade Representative for additional reports and updates.
• Foreign Agricultural Service includes United States food aid to other countries, agricultural trade information, and more.
• International Energy Data includes country specific information as well as overviews.
• Social Security Programs Throughout the World
• World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems
• CIA Maps (see also Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection which has digitalized additional CIA maps).
• Travelers' Health (National Center for Infectious Diseases). Health information on specific destinations and more.
• Current Travel Warnings and Current Public Announcements offer warnings for travelers. (State Department)
• Consular Information Sheets (State Department)
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Selected Economic and Social Data (Agency for International Development)
• U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, Obligations and Loan Authorizations [The Greenbook] (Agency for International Development)

United States Foreign Relations / Foreign Policy

• United States. Department of State
• Foreign Relations of the United States, the official historical record of major United States foreign policy is online via the State Department for recent years (1945-latest); for additional volumes or other time periods, see the Library Catalog entry for printed volumes or University of Wisconsin's Electronic Facsimile project.
• Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs (State Department) has much information on international law including Treaties in Force and Treaty Actions. If you are interested in agreements between countries, see also the United States Institute of Peace's Peace Agreement Digital Library which includes the text of agreements signed by the major contending parties ending inter- and intra-state conflicts worldwide since 1989.
• United States Congressional Serial Set via GPOAccess includes recent Senate Treaty Documents. Connect to U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Edition (Oviatt Library subscription) if you need older Senate Treaty Documents. The Oviatt Library also owns additional volumes of the Serial Set in paper or microform formats; see the Library Catalog record for the Serial Set for additional details on holdings and formats.
• Congressional hearings
  • Committee on Foreign Relations (United States Senate)
  • House Committee on Foreign Affairs (United States House of Representatives)
  • Congressional Hearings. Several years of recent hearings are searchable online and available full-text.
  • To identify and access hearings owned by Oviatt Library, use one or more of these:
    • Library Catalog. The Oviatt Library owns many Congressional hearings and often provides links if full text versions are online.
    • CIS Index indexes hearings held by Congressional committees by subject and more.
    • Catalog of United States Government Publications includes hot links. 1976- present. Nonsubscription online version of the Monthly Catalog from the Government Printing Office. For older material, use the print version of Monthly Catalog. Some older hearings are included in large microform collections; ask a librarian for assistance if the hearing you want is not listed in the Library Catalog.
• Digital National Security Archives (Oviatt Library subscription)

Foreign Trade Resources

• National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers. See also the Document Library from the Office of the United States Trade Representative for additional reports and updates.
• Export.gov, the U.S. Government’s Export Portal, includes market research, trade leads, export finance information, country-specific tariff and tax information, etc.
• STAT-USA. (Oviatt Library subscription; other users can link to the STAT-USA home page to learn about access options). Provides access to economic, business, and trade information produced by the United States Government. Its National Trade Data Bank provides access to Country Commercial Guides, Market Research reports, Best Market reports and other programs. The International Trade Library is a comprehensive collection of over 40,000 documents related to international trade. All are full text searchable, as well as key word searchable by country or product. Offers daily trade leads.
• USA Trade Online (Oviatt Library subscription). Specific export and import information on more than 18,000 commodities by commodity, partner country, and customs port district--including Los Angeles.
• Exports and International Trade, an Oviatt Library subject guide, lists additional sources on foreign trade.

Key U.S. Government Agencies

• United States Department of State
• Agency for International Development, especially its U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, Obligations and Loan Authorizations [The Greenbook]
• Central Intelligence Agency
• DefenseLINK
• The White House/United States President, especially Presidential News and Speeches and Policies and Initiatives
• Committee on Foreign Relations (United States Senate)
• House Committee on Foreign Affairs (United States House of Representatives)
• United States Institute of Peace
• United States Trade Representative
• United States International Trade Administration
• United States International Trade Commission
• Foreign Agricultural Service

Strategies to Find More

1. Ways to Search for Government Information, an Oviatt Library guide on how to identify and locate government information, includes list of indexes for government publications (some of these indexes are online) and links to internet search engines such as Google's U.S. Government Search and USA.gov which are specifically for government web sites.
2. Country internet sites: Most countries and international organizations have an internet site. Foreign Governments is a good starting point. (See a list of other such links at the Oviatt Library's Government Information Page: International and Foreign).
3. Portals to the World (Library of Congress) and Foreign Information by Country (University of Colorado at Boulder's University Library) are useful guides that links to electronic resources about specific countries; some of the sites included are government sites, many are not. Evaluate resources that you find carefully before you rely upon them.
4. News sources:
   • CountryWatch includes a section on wire/news agency articles which can be particularly helpful for news stories on other countries. This is an Oviatt Library subscription, but other users may connect to the basic CountryWatch.com site.
   • ABYZ News Links
   • NewsLink
5. Use other library resources which include more than just government information. The Oviatt Library Home Page and the Library Catalog are helpful places for those using the Oviatt Library to access these resources or Ask a Librarian for help.

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Created and maintained by Mary M. Finley
Questions or comments: mary.finley@csun.edu
Links checked: 22 August 2008