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International Relations *

A guide to databases and scholarly online sources that support conducting research in international relations and comparative politics.

International Media Sources

The following databases and websites provide comprehensive access to international news sources:

  • ABYZ News Links -- a directory of links to online news sources from around the world with contents organized on a geographical basis. The directory contains links to newspapers and other sites with news content such as broadcast stations, internet services, magazines, and press agencies.
  • Access World News -- comprehensive news collection for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos.
  • Ethnic NewsWatch -- provides full-text access to scholarly and popular articles from ethnic, minority, and native publishers in the United States, with international coverage. The database offers news and analysis of issues and events from a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints.
  • LEXIS/NEXIS Academic -- from the Search the News contents, the database provides full-text access to selected international magazines and newspapers, radio and broadcast transcripts from news programs, and blogs.
  • Library PressDisplay -- includes more than 2000 newspapers from 100 countries in 60 languages; all sources displayed in their original format, including photos and advertisements. Access to the most recent 3 months only.
  • Newspaper Map -- an online system that uses GIS mapping to find approximately 10,000 newspapers worldwide categorized by language. Each page contains websites of the listed newspapers and links to read the papers through Google Translate.
  • RadioStationWorld -- a directory of radio stations on the web, radio stations that offer streaming webcast services, as well as national and regional broadcast networks, shortwave radio, satellite radio, hospital radio, cable radio, closed circuit/campus radio, and radio service providers.
  • WatchingAmerica -- reflects global opinion about the United States by providing translated news and views about the United States published in other countries. Archives of translated opinion and news postings are available from 2005.
  • Yahoo World News -- news service of Yahoo with links to regional coverage in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and Europe.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Country and Regional Media Sources

Resources that provide access to regional newspapers and media sources:

  • African Arguments -- a pan-African platform for news, investigation, and opinion that seeks to analyze under-covered issues facing the continent, investigate the stories that matter, and amplify a diversity of voices. African Arguments seeks to breaks down the news through the use of an extensive network of journalists, researchers, and commentators covering topics related to politics, economics, gender, the environment, culture, social affairs, and much more. African Arguments also provides a crucial and unique platform for predominantly African writers to reach a predominantly African and international, audience. An important site for gaining an African-centered perspective about issues and problems in Africa.
  • Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library -- a digital library for newspaper resources from the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean region. The database provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials on newsprint currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
  • China Core Newspapers -- this full-text multidisciplinary database provides access to selected articles in about 700 Chinese language newspapers published in the People's Republic of China from 2000 to the present. Contents are updated continuously. Click on "Newspapers" above the search box and use Chinese simplified characters to search for articles.
  • Connecting Africa -- an online news source dedicated to tackling the immense scope of the African digital landscape.  Key topics covered include the evolution of mobile networking throughout the continent, developments in mobile financial services, news about the impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, enhanced analytics and blockchain, the growth of cloud services and rising needs for cybersecurity, and information concerning digital inclusion, financial inclusion, and gender equality. Excellent site for news about how the digital revolution and knowledge economy is impacting Africans.
  • eufeeds -- an RSS aggregator that provides direct RSS news from more than a 1,000 European newspapers, press agencies, and magazines. EU Feeds is updated every 20 minutes with news articles from the most popular national, regional, and local newspapers in the EU 27 Member States. Click on a flag at the top of the page to designate newspapers from your country of interest.
  • Eurasianet -- an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia regions of the world, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on the most important developments in the region. The organization strives to provide information useful to policymakers, scholars, and interested citizens both in and outside of Eurasia. The news is published in both English and Russian.
  • Mideastwire.com -- an Internet-based service of translated news briefs covering key political, cultural, economic, and opinion pieces appearing in the Arab media. The service covers news from all twenty-two Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab diaspora generally, with coverage that extends across the North Africa region as well as including the United Kingdom and other countries that host Pan-Arab media.
  • The Media Line -- established in 2000, this is one of the first American non-profit news agencies created to address the need for complete, contextual and nuanced reporting from the Middle East.
  • ProQuest Latin American Newsstand -- provides over 100 full-text newspapers in Spanish and Portuguese from across Latin America.  Includes titles from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela with additional access to regional magazines and wire services.
  • Radio Free Asia -- an aggregator of "indigenous free media" covering domestic news and events in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea, Tibet, Uyghur, and Vietnam. News articles focus primarily on politics, economics, and human rights and are divided by country or you can search for articles by keyword.
  • Selected Western European Newspapers and News Services -- a subset of links maintained by Western European Specialists Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries that provides links to selected newspapers and other news sources in twenty-two European nations.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Historical International News Sources

These databases and websites offer access to historical newspapers and media sources:

  • Facts on File World News Digest -- this archival record of domestic and international news is updated weekly and contains more than one million internal hyperlinks and convenient new features such as tabbed search results. The database covers all major political, social, and economic events since November 1940.
  • Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports -- translated full-text transcripts of international radio and television broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspaper and magazine articles, and government pronouncements. The reports contain political, military, economic, environmental, and sociological news and information, as well as some scientific and technical information. The Daily Reports are available from September 1941 through October of 1996. Many of these materials are firsthand reports of events as they occurred.
  • Global Times -- this is a daily newspaper focusing on international relations and foreign affairs and is an essential indicator of Chinese foreign policies. Coverage from 1993 to the present.
  • People's Daily -- People's Daily is the most influential and authoritative newspaper in China. It has been the official voice of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China since 1946.
  • Telegraph Historical Archive -- The Daily Telegraph was launched in 1855, and for more than 150 years it has shaped and recorded the history and democratic values of the United Kingdom. The Sunday Telegraph was launched as a sister paper in 1961, and The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000 provides users with access to both the daily and Sunday editions.
  • Times of London Digital Archive -- offers the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. Coverage is from 1785-2008.
  • The Time Magazine Archive -- presents an extensive collection of the prominent weekly news magazine dating back to its first issue in March 1923 through December 2000, presented in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format. Published weekly by Time Inc., the magazine has focused on conveying to a broad audience both domestic and international news and analysis on a spectrum of subjects.
  • Wenshi Ziliao (Literary and Historical Materials) --  to access the database, please click the link “click to enter” on the homepage, then click “文史资料‘’ under “superstar specialty” section, and then you will then be able to browse and search the wenshi ziliao collection.
  • World Newsreels Online -- a streaming video database which captures full runs of key international newsreels produced during the early twentieth century. These films, produced from 1929 right through to the early post-war period (1966), provide a unique resource that gives insight into how people learned about, and lived through the events that occurred during this period of history.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.