U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Information Sources

This list includes items available in the UO Library's Document Center and selected Internet resources. It includes sources of official policy statements, policy discussions, and viewpoints of foreign governments. The Document Center's government publications collection also contains much descriptive or statistical information useful for exploring the background or context of particular policies. For assistance with those sources, ask a documents librarian.

1. Department of State, Official Web Site. (online): The State Department web site is an excellent resource for finding current foreign policy information. Most of the Department's print publications, including the Dispatch, are now available in electronic form at this site. The site also contains materials not readily available elsewhere, such as press statements and transcripts of interviews with Department officials.
For older State Department materials (1990-97), use the Electronic Research Collection, maintained by the University of Illinois at Chicago Library.
2. Dispatch. DOC-US S 1.3/5 (1990-1999): This journal was an official organ of the U.S. State Department, and contained a variety of policy statements, major speeches, fact sheets, and other foreign policy information from the Department. In 1997 it changed frequency from weekly to monthly and was scaled back in content. It is indexed in Academic Search Premier. The title ceased with the December, 1999 issue.
3. Department of State Bulletin. DOC-LC JX 232.A33 (1939-1989): This monthly journal was continued by Dispatch.
4. Current Policy Series. DOC-US S1.71/4 (1975-1990): This State Department series of individual policy statements has been superseded by Dispatch.
5. Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. DOC-LC E 173.A1: The official compilation of Presidential statements, including speeches, news conferences, bill signing (or veto) statements, treaty signature statements, proclamations and executive orders. The items are later compiled into annual volumes, The Public Papers of the President, DOC-LC JK 1.A52. The Weekly Compilation is indexed in Academic Search Premier. The online version has the full-text of the publication from 1993 to present.
6. American Foreign Policy: Current Documents. DOC-US S1.71/2 (1950-1990): Annual compilation of policy documents, with detailed subject index. There is some overlap with other sources (particularly 1,2, 3 and 4), but some items are found nowhere else. None published since 1990.
7. Congressional hearings.: Hearings are the transcripts of testimony provided to Congressional committees by members of the public or the Administration. Often they are a rich source for discussions of particular policies. The State Department's annual appropriations hearings before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees (shelved at DOC-US Y4.Ap 6/1 and Y4.Ap 6/2, respectively) are a continuing source of insights, but oversight hearings are often held on particular aspects of foreign policy by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (shelved at DOC-US Y4.F 76/2) and the House Committee on International Relations (shelved at DOC-US Y4.In 8/16). The most effective index to these hearings is the Congressional Information Service (CIS), below. The committees resposible for Congressional oversight of U.S. foreign policy are the House Committee on International Relations and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The committee web sites have transcripts of recent hearings and additional statements on foreing policy issues from members ofthe committee.
8. Lexis-Nexis Congressional (CIS). DOC-LC KF 49. C62: This online database provides indexing to all Congressional publications, including committee hearings. A good finding tool for the documents producted by Congress. There is a print index available for years through 1998, the CIS Index.
9. Foreign Relations of the United States. DOC-LC JX 233.A3: This set of volumes contains retrospectively published documents that have been de-classified as a result of the State Department's regular review of its classified files. This review is conducted thirty years after the original creation of the documents. 1863-1976.
10. World News Connection.: An online service that provides current coverage of foreign news media, as previously Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). Daily Reports. This service, provided by a unit of the CIA, provides daily translations of foreign radio/TV broadcasts, official news agency releases, newspaper articles, etc. from many countries throughout the world. Not a source for U.S. government positions, but for views of other countries. A set of separate indexes provides subject access. The distribution of paper and microfiche copies ended in October, 1996 and was replaced by the World News Connection.
11. Declassified Documents Catalog. DOC-LC Z 1223. Z9 D4: This catalog provides a listing and subject index to previously classified documents from federal agencies such as the Departments of State and Defense, the CIA and the FBI, that have been declassified through either the Freedom of Information Act or regular agency declassification reviews. The texts of the indexed documents are contained in a companion microfiche set. 1975-1994 (though the indexed documents may be much older).
12. United Nations. General Assembly. Official Records. Provisional Verbatim Reports. DOCS UNCAT: RANGE 29.: The "PV's" are the verbatim transcripts of speeches before the UN General Assembly, and as such are a useful source of official views of other nations on topics of international concern. Annual indexes are published but may be delayed.

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Maintained by: Ted D. Smith, tedsmith@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 10/03/2006