FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS
Country Background

• Summarizes each country's history, economy, and foreign policy
• Updated on a staggered basis every few years
• The latest edition of the paper copy is in the Map Library as G59.U58

CIA World Factbook

• Brief information about a country's population, ethnicity, politics, and economics
• The corresponding paper copy is in Doc.Cen. G 122 .U56--Doc.Ref.

Columbia Gazetteer of the World

• Dictionary of places and place names, including cities, bridges, maritime or geological features, states, provinces
• Each entry provides detailed information on the place, its history, and current economy as appropriate
• Search by place name, type of place or keyword

Commonwealth on Line

• Brief identification of the 53 British Commonwealth countries with information on their society, history, geography, and politics
• Links to official government web pages

Country Commercial Guides (State Dept)

• Economic and political factors for U.S. citizens exporting to various countries
• Includes laws, contacts, key imports and exports
• Choose name of country and report type country commercial guides from the main menu

Country Briefings (Economist Intelligence Unit)

• Brief economic and economic policy forecasts
• Summary economic data for past four years (GDP, unemployment, consumer prices)
• Lengthier summary of recent political history
• Current exchange rates
• More extensive analysis (country reports, country surveys, risk data, cost of food) are available to UMich Users through EIU campus license

Country Profiles (ELDIS)

• Arranged by country with links to newspapers, profiles, government agencies and statistics as well as economic, demographic, and environment reports
• Sources primarily include US and international documents, such as the IMF country reports or FAO special studies

Go Global

• Calculate distances and compare time between major world cities
• National holidays for the current month
• Voltage and power converter requirements in various countries
• Use the links on the lefthand side of the screen

Historical Abstracts (UMich Only)

• Indexes 2000 journals on world history since 1450 (excluding U.S. and Canadian)

Human Development Report (UNDP)

• Web version summarizes regional and country statistics on economic, social, and educational development
• Each annual version focuses on an individual topic
  • 1995 issue addressed gender equality
  • 1997 issue carried poverty statistics by country with additional data on life expectancy, literacy, and per capita gross domestic product
  • 2001 on technology and 2006 on the global water crisis
• Paper copy (Doc. Cen. HD 72 .H92) carries murder, rape, drug crime, and prisoner statistics for selected industrialized countries appear in the statistical appendix

eHRAF Collection of Ethnography (UMich Only)

• Books and articles on cultures of the world
• Texts converted by the UMich Humanities Text Initiative on an on-going basis
• Search by simple keyword, Boolean logic, or Outline of World Cultures classification

INCORE Internet Country Guides

• Guides to 15 Third World countries where ethnicity has spawned conflict
• Countries include Chechnya and Russia, Burundi, Myanmar, India, Pakistan
• Includes annotated links to governmental and non-governmental organizations addressing the conflict, news sources, and e-mail groups

International Network Information Centers (UTexas)

• Sections on Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia/Eastern Europe
• Considerable background information on individual countries
• Includes references to discussion and newsgroups

Libary of Congress Country Studies

• Extensive discussion of a country's social, economic, defense, and foreign relations policy
• For approximately 71 countries
• For additional printed reports, consult MIRLYN with a search: (name of country} and "country study"
• Previously known as Army Area Handbooks

MSU Global Access

• Database of countries of the world
• Information includes history, socio-economic data, languages, and travel information
• State Department and CIA publications supply the backbone but country information includes unique links to business and travel information
• Searchable by country, theme, resource type, and constituent

Nations Online

• Worldwide population characteristics, including race, religion, access to sanitation
• Maps and detailed information about individual countries including links to government agencies, major newspapers, sports, city populations, time zones, flags
• Currency converters and international airport codes

Orders, Decorations and Medals

• Military and civilian medals awarded by individual countries

Parliaments on the Web (IPU)

• List of all countries with a parliamentary system
• Links to their web sites if available
• PARLIN provides basic parliamentary and electoral information (e.g. constituencies, voter qualifications) for all countries as well as the latest election results (voter turnout; statistics on elected officials by party, profession, sex, and age; textual analysis

Peace Corps

• Summary of Peace Corps activities in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean
• Summarizes the agricultural, environmental, economic, educational, and health situations in each region
• Links to information about individual countries

State Department Travel Advisories

• Includes health, crime, potential conflict, and embassy information for travellers
• Revised periodically as needed

Chiefs of State and Cabinet Ministers (CIA)

• Quarterly list of officials arranged by foreign country

Political Leaders, 1945- (Univ.Basque Country)

• Lists rulers of individual countries, 1945 to the present
• Arranged by country with the name, office, dates of term, regime (civilian/military) or party membership
• Related data bases include contemporary women leaders, African rulers, and heads of state dying under suspicious circumstances

Political Obituary (Univ. of the Basque Country)

• Brief death notices for major political leaders throughout the world
• Arranged by year and month, 1990 to present
• Index is in English; entries are in Spanish

Rulers.Org

• Chronological list of rulers and primary ministers arranged by country or international agency
• Provides dates in office as well as birth and death dates
• Essentially begins during the early 19th Century

• Links to web sites by and about foreign governments
• Foreign policy usually found on the web pages of the Head of State as well as defense and trade agencies

Additional Sources of Foreign Government Policy

• Background Notes on Countries of the World
  • Politics, foreign policy, human rights, history, economic and demographic information from U.S. State Department
• Country Economic Policy and Trade Practices
  • Economic statistics and foreign trade practices
  • Annual publication of U.S. State Department
  • Updated through January 20, 2001; further updates at State Department website
• Embassies
  • Foreign web sites in various countries
• International Relations
  • Peace and conflict networks, simulations, treaties, international think tanks
• Newspapers
  • Includes foreign newspapers and U.S. sources, such as World News Connection and Open Media
• Military Statistics
  • Correlates of war, military expenditures, strength of armed forces
• Periodicals
  • Several scholarly political science periodicals provide the lead article in the current issue
• United Nations
  • Speeches not available on the Internet but often the text of draft letters and UN press releases often reflect developments

United States Foreign Policy

• Historical and current sources
• President as well as defense, intelligence, state, and trade agencies
• Includes books, articles, news, peace networks

• Annual country reports on human rights practices
• Multiple investigations for individual countries

Annual Report on International Religious Freedom (State Department)

• Extensive country reports on religious rights
• Includes percent of religious adherents, outbreaks of violence
• Government laws protecting religious freedom
• Updated through January 20, 2001; further updates at State Department website

Bibliography for Research On International Human Rights Law

• Extensive bibliography of paper, electronic and Internet sources
• Covers treaties case law, research guides, periodicals, and country situations

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

• State Department annual report on human rights violations in individual countries beginning 1993

Crosspoint Anti-Racisim

• Annotated links to 1500 organizations fighting racism around the world
• Primarily arranged by country

For the Record

• Summary of human reports reports given by individual countries to the United Nations
• Hot links to the full text
• Part of the Human Rights Internet

Forced Migration Online

• Special reports on forced migration
• Covers causes and repatriation issues, such as property laws

Gendercide Watch

• Gendercide is the extermination of one sex (e.g. men of fighting age, women of child-bearing age, etc.)
• Detailed case studies of 20th Century gendercide incidents
• Current news articles

Human and Constitutional Rights (Columbia University)

• Links to foreign national web sites on human rights (e.g. Supreme Courts, human rights watch groups)
• Links to international and regional organizations monitoring human rights
• Human rights treaties

Human Rights on the Internet (ACRL)

• Annotated bibliography of human rights activist sources on the Internet
• Includes Meta sites, annual surveys and lsits

Human Rights Watch

• Full text of country reports on human rights in various countries
• Breaking news and background reports
• Web site includes search engine
• Last updated January 25, 1997

Human Rights Web

• Extensive guide to human rights organizations, databases, and newsgroups worldwide
• Includes inter-governmental and private web sites and documents

InterAction

• Web site for 150 of the world's relief, development and refugee assistance agencies
• Links to information on refugees and disaster relief
• News items, such as the status of foreign aid bills, Kurdish refugees
• Description of the American Council for Voluntary Action's humanitarian programs

International Freedom of Expression Clearing House

• Searchable data base of 4500 action alerts and news items on freedom of expression abuses in various countries

Internet in the MidEast and North Africa: Free Expression and Censorship (Human Rights Watch)

• A 1999 report examining the laws and censorship in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen
• Policy recommendations

Press Freedom Online (Committee to Protect Journalists)

• Approximately 2000 short reports on harassment of journalists worldwide
• Reports include name, country, harasser, and type (imprisonment, censored, etc)
• Searchable by data, country, region, news organization

Privacy International

• Individual reports for 50 countries on privacy issues and laws
• Extensive material on general privacy issues, including Freedom of Information, national ID cards, electronic money, electronic surveillance, And workplace surveillance

Religious Rights (UNESCO)

• Religious rights provisions of individual national constitutions
• International treaties with religious rights provisions
• Bibliography of sources and discussion groups

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

• "Refworld" is an extensive, searchable data base of United Nations, legal, treaty, and statistical information on refugees
• "Refworld" also includes "Country" reports with descriptive text on the status of refugees by country as well as statistics
• Information about the UNCHR and its publications, news releases, and documentaries

United States Committee for Refugees

• Annual reports and statistics about refugees by country
• Glossary of terms and links to refugee service organizations

Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century

• Web site of the Special UN General Assembly Session of June 2000, known as "Beijing +5"
• Progress and obstacles to women's progress in health, poverty, safety, education, economics
• Country reports from government and non-government sources
• Links to UN web sites on improving the status of women

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library

• International human rights treaties arranged by subject and searchable by keyword
• United States human rights laws, speeches, reports, and historical materials
• International refugee and asylum information

Women's Human Rights Resources (Univ.Toronto)

• Treaties, conventions and web links to resources on women's rights around the world
• Subjects include education, genital mutiliation, girls, housing, health, marriage, slavery, and violence
• Carefully annotated

• Dictionary of places and place names, including cities, bridges, maritime or geological features, states, provinces
• Each entry provides detailed information on the place, its history, and current economy as appropriate
• Search by place name, type of place or keyword

Google Maps

• Detailed physical and geopolitical maps of the world
• Use frame in lower righthand side to navigate
• Can switch to and from geographic to satellite view

Map-Related Web Sites (Univ.Texas)

• City, state, and country maps from around the world
• Historical and weather maps
• Reference section includes gazetteers, distance locators, and time zone maps

• Audio of national anthems using Midi
• Text of national anthems available selectively in English and/or native language

Flags of the World

• Large color illustrations of national flags

• Links to newspapers from around the world
• Information on Foreign Broadcast Information Service/World News Connection translations
• United States radio broadcasts (Voice of America, Open Media)
• U.S. media coverage of world events

Politics

• Political parties and political issues from around the world
• Election web sites, world-wide election calendars, and election news

Statistics

• International sources with world-wide statistical coverage
• Primarily demographics and economics
• Additonal sources found under Statistical Resources on the Web (UMich)

Taxation

• International Taxes
  • Annotated links to web sites explaining the tax codes of individual countries
  • Limited list of countries but web sites often provide good information in English

• Taxman International
  • Extensive links to the finance ministries and taxation web sites of individual countries