W&L

University Library

POLITICS 214: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (Professor Strong)

Presidential Documents

Unpublished presidential papers are usually held in presidential libraries rather than the National Archives. The National Archives provides a list of Presidential Libraries

The Presidential Records Act restricts public access requests to presidential papers for the first five years after the end of the Administration. A Presidential Library, however, may opt to make presidential records prior to that date.

Declassified Documents

Declassified documents are not collected in any single site or database. You will need to search a variety of sources. 

U.S. Government Sources

The U.S. Federal Government offers broadcast and online news for and about selected regions of the world via the Broadcasting Board of Governors.   Scan to the bottom of the BBG page to see the Voice of America and regional options, such as Radio Free Asia.  Some material is not available in English.

The U.S. Department of State site provides coverage of U.S. policies and relations with foreign governments.  For this class, you might be particularly interested in the "Countries and Regions" drop-down options.

Foreign Governments

Northwestern University maintains a massive list of links to foreign governments.  Not all material is available in English, but some agencies provide parallel English-language sites.

International Governmental Organizations

Major international non-governmental organizations can be useful sources of information on regions and countries of the world.  The W&L library has created a Google-based search engine which enables you to conduct a focused search on the sites of 25 major NGO's.
Two notes about using this search engine: (1)enter your search terms in the "Google Custom Search" box; (2) when viewing search results, note that you can re-arrange the listings chronologically by using the "Sort By -- Date" option, in the upper-right corner.