This is an evolving guide designed to help you find information on your country/issues for our Model United Nations simulation experience.

On Your Country:

Specifics for your country:

Your country's foreign ministry website. Find via the US Institute of Peace             http://www.usip.org/library/formin.html

Your country’s mission to the United Nations. Find via the UN at http://www.un.int/index-en/webs.html  

Your country’s president/prime minister site (check especially speeches).  Just google “president france” to find the official Sarkozy website!!

Pronunciation guide for leaders and officials of your country.  See http://names.voa.gov/ (choose your country and find a list of important individuals).

Your country's voting record at the United Nations http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=voting&menu=search&submenu=power#focus

General country information resources:

BBC Country Profiles http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm

CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Economist magazine Country Briefings  http://www.economist.com/countries/

European Governments Online (from the EU) http://europa.eu.int/abc/governments/index_en.html

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute military databases                http://www.sipri.org/contents/webmaster/databases

US Department of State http://www.state.gov 

US Department of State Background Notes http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/

World Bank http://www.worldbank.org 

World Wide Web Virtual Library (WWWVL) International Affairs Resources http://www.etown.edu/vl/

Find newspapers from inside your country.  One way is the general internet resource: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/. Lexis-Nexis also allows you to search within newspapers from your country. Choose the sources tab, then find newspapers from your country and use your search term.

On Your Issues:

Web resources:

Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org

Brookings http://www.brookings.edu/

Carter Center http://www.cartercenter.org

Chatham House http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/

Council on Foreign Relations http://www.cfr.org/index.php

Foreign Policy in Focus http://www.fpif.org/

Freedom House http://www.freedomhouse.org/

Global Issues http://www.globalissues.org/

Global Policy Forum http://www.globalpolicy.org/

Global Security http://www.globalsecurity.org/

Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org

International Crisis Group http://www.crisisgroup.org

United Nations (Official) http://www.un.org/english/  

United Nations Basic Facts http://www.un.org/aboutun/basicfacts/

United Nations Issues http://www.un.org/issues/

United Nations News http://www.un.org/News/

UN Chronicle http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/index.html

Voting Practices at the United Nations from US State Department http://www.state.gov/p/io/conrpt/vtgprac/

Library journal databases: 

Check the library's journal databases http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/databases/index.html: CIAO, Ebscohost, JStor, Project Muse, Blackwell Synergy, Sage Journals, PAIS International, Opposing Viewpoints, and Lexis-Nexis among others. Especially good scholarly journals include: American Political Science Review, Current History, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Human Rights Quarterly, International Organizations, International Security, Journal of Democracy, Perspectives on Politics, Survival, and Third World Quarterly, The Washington Quarterly, and World Politics.  Be aware that if your research involves an issue of health or environment, you might have luck, if you search the databases in those disciplines.

Librarian Beth Kaylor provides the following links for our class. See, the class page at: http://library.uncw.edu/web/faculty/kaylorj/PLS221.htm.  See also, for investigating country-specific resources: http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/topic/country2.html.  The Public and International Affairs research guide is at http://library.uncw.edu/subjects/public-and-international-affairs.  Contact Ms. Kaylor at kaylorj[at]uncw.edu.

September 21, 2010

Author: Paige Tan, tanp@uncw.edu