CMU LibGuides: Foreign Policy: Government Resources

Government Resources - United States

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports This link opens in a new window
1941-1996
Transcripts of foreign broadcasts and news, translated into English.
Foreign Relations of the United States This link opens in a new window
1861-present.
Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.

Treaties and Agreements Library
All U.S. treaties, whether currently in-force, expired, or not-yet officially published.
Government Documents (United States)
Resources for finding federal legislation ([past and present), hearings, statistics, etc.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
The database ranges from the years immediately following World War II, when declassified documents were first made widely available, through the 1970s. Nearly every major foreign and domestic event of these years is covered: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, and others.

Central Intelligence Agency
Coordinates the nation's intelligence activities and correlates, evaluates, and disseminates intelligence which affects national security. Speeches, testimony, press releases and statements, maps, World Factbook
Department of Defense
Provides the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of the United States. News highlights, briefings, reports, images, etc.
Department of State
Policy issues, state briefings, fact sheets, testimony by senior officials, reports and publications, etc. Also U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets , older Older Background Notes.
National Security Agency
Coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information. Briefings, speeches, press releases, etc
National Security Council
The President's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials. Since its inception under President Truman, the Council's function has been to advise and assist the President on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the President's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies.

Colonial State Papers (1574 - 1757) This link opens in a new window
Over 7,000 manuscript papers and 40,000 bibliographic records concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Database Guide
Documents on British Policy Overseas (1898 - 1990) This link opens in a new window
1898-1990. primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), shedding light on diplomatic history throughout the 20th C. It is based on three print series which form a record of British peacetime diplomacy since the end of the 19th C: British Documents on the Origins of the War 1898-1914, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1918-1939 and Documents on British Policy Overseas. Database Guide

World War I: British Foreign Office Political Correspondence
Contains the working papers of the British Foreign Office used in the development of British foreign policy. The information contained in these documents was often classified and was not made available for study outside of the British government until many years after the documents were created. This collection consists of records relating to the diplomatic business of the Foreign Office, which includes not only the formal relations between two countries but also the information needed by the British government in order to conduct diplomatic relations. This includes the domestic political, economic, social, and cultural relations of another country plus that country's relations with other nations, as well as British internal political concerns.

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