These resources will provide you with descriptive information on issues and countries. Additional resources are listed on Sara Nixon's International Relations and Country Information Web sites.

Open CRS:Congressional Research Reports for the People
CRS Reports are prepared by staff of the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service and are intended to provide an overview of the legislative topics being addressed by the U.S. Congress. They are meant to provide fact-rich, unbiased, non-technical background information on policy issues.

This Web site allows keyword searching of and provides summaries for over 12,600 CRS Reports that are available through various repositories sponsored by organizations such as National Council on Science and the Environment, Federation of American Scientists, and Thurgood Marshall Law Library at University of Maryland School of Law.

2ACT is another service that provides access to about 16,000 research reports.
University of North Texas Libraries includes CRS reports back to 1990.
Some examples:

• Russian Political, Economic and Security Issues and U. S. Interests 10/6/08
  • Addresses Chechnya, economic stability of Russian economy, ABM Defense, decommissioning of Soviet era nukes
• U.S. - Russian Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Issues for Congress 6/9/08
• Extending NASA's Exemption from the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Non-Proliferation Act 10/1/08
• Russia-Georgia Conflict in South Ossetia 8/13/08
• Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Political Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests 11/6/08
  • Caspian Sea oil
    

Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations. 4 vols. 1997

Traces the history of U.S. foreign policy regarding countries including Russia and the former Soviet Union, Iran, Korea and issues including Antiballistic Missile Treaty, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Comprehenisive Test Ban Treaty, Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Nuclear Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons and Strategy, Human Rights, Oil and Foreign Policy, Nongovernmental Organizaions, Accompanying bibliographies provide suggestions for further reading.

Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy. 3v. 2001
Includes topics such as Arms Control and Disarmament, Deterrance, Nuclear Strategy and Diplomacy, Cold War, Post-Cold War Policy, Oil, Human Rights.

American Foreign Relations Since 1600: A Guide to the Literature. 2nd ed. 2 vols. 2003

Annotated list of resources published by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Includes U.S. document collections, personal papers, bibliographies, historiography and biographies for a time period as well as overviews of relations between the U.S. and other countries and regions.

For U.S. foreign relations with Russia, check Chapter 31: US and New Cold War under Carter and Reagan: US - Soviet Relations, pp.1846-52 and Chapter 32: US and End of Cold War and After: End of Cold War and the Soviet Union, pp.1871-74.

Check for availability of books of interest that you find in the Towson and/or USMAI Catalog. Check for availability of journal articles from the Cook Library Web site, by checking the Journals List to see if the library subscribes to the journal/newspaper/magazine that you want.

Europa World Year Book. 1961- [annual] Latest kept on Reserve.

• Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia . 2002- [annual] [Ref DJK1 E2]
  • Regional supplement to Europa World Year Book with extended political and economic sections

OECD Economic Surveys: Russian Federation. November 2006 [annual]

Includes sections on Sustaining Growth, Industrial Competitiveness, Natural Gas, Power Sector Restructuring, and Banking Reform.

For this and other current OECD publications, search Business Source Premier. In the Advanced Search screen, search for Russia [Subject Term] and type OECD in the box next to the word PUBLICATION, under the Refine Your Results: section of the search screen.

Business Source [TU users only]
Available through Cook Library Web site under Research Databases. Click on Business Source.

The country reports published by various concerns that are available through this database provide up-to-date descriptive information on the economy and politics of nations.

This database provides full text access to Country Monitor, Country Profile and Country Report (Economist Intelligence Unit), and Political Risk Yearbook: Country Forecasts and Country Conditions. Although the emphasis of some of these publications is economic, basic country information and extensive current political profiles are included. The Country Profile, and the Political Risk Yearbook are published annually. The Country Report and Country Monitor offer monthly updates.
NOTE:There may not be a report for every country in each (or any) of the six publications

• Once in Business Source Premier, click on the Advanced Search tab
• Type the name of the country you are researching in the first box and change Select a Field to SUBJECT TERMS (e.g. Russia)
• Further down the screen, next to the box that says Publication, type the word country
• Click on Search
• To limit your search to the politics of a country, add economic to your search (e.g. russia and economic [SUBJECT TERMS]
• To search for a specific publication, type its title next to the box that says Publication

Russian Analytical Digest

• Provides overviews of "political, economic, and social developments in Russia and its regions, and looks at Russia's role in international relations" - from the Web site

A combined search in Academic Search/Social Sciences Abstracts, the Towson (Cook)/USMAI Catalogs, and think tank Web sites are all potential sources of analysis of issues. Here are some strategies for finding this type of information.

Access Academic Search/Social Sciences Abstracts [Ebsco] from Research Databases on the Cook Library Web site from on campus and through Research Port with your 14-digit library ID and last name from off campus

Search [TU users only] combined in the ADVANCED SEARCH and limit to peer-reviewed articles

• For example: russia and nuclear [SUBJECT TERMS] and decommission* or stockpil* or waste or disposal [Select a Field ] and select peer-reviewed
• Searches like this will direct you to articles in scholarly journals
• Use similar terms when searching the library book catalogs

Search Google with keywords and site:org and you will retrieve a list of analytical sources from think tanks

• For example: russia iran nuclear site:org will bring up resources from organizations like Globalsecurity.org, Nuclear Threat Initiative [NTI], Arms Control Association, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Center for Defense Information [CDI] and Council on Foreign Relations
• For example: chechnya site:org will produce a list of results from organizations like Human Rights Watch, Global Issues, Council on Foreign Relations, and Rand

Homeland Security Digital Library [TU users only]

• Access from Research Databases on the Cook Library Web site from on campus and through Research Port with your 14-digit library ID and last name from off campus
• This full text database contains a wealth of primary and secondary sources from the U.S. government and unaffiliated organizations and research institutes

ISN: International Relations & Security Network

• This site covers political, economic and social developments in Russia and its regions, Caspian Sea, Caucasus (Georgia), Northern Caucasus (Chechnya) and looks at Russia's role in international relations through the Russian Analytical Digest which includes reports from Russlandanalysen, Russian and Eurasian Security, and the Russian Regional Report

CIAO [TU users only]

"Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs." - from the site

U.S. Department of State
Try the following areas of this site:

• Congressional Testimony covering 1993 to current
• Foreign Press Centers
  • Briefings (by region), Reports (by region) , covering 2001- current and accessible by topic, region, or date
• Russia for keeping up-to-date, covering current year only

Google Search

• Search Google with a strategy that incorporates your topic and searches .gov domain
  • For example: abm russia site:gov This will bring up resources from US government Web sites
  • For example: caspian oil site:gov
  • Once on a Web site, explore it THOROUGHLY

LexisNexis Academic [TU users only]

Provides full text of political transcripts from U.S. Federal News Service and FDCH News Service including FDCH Political Transcripts and Congressional Testimony, interviews, speeches and GAO reports. Also includes statements of visiting dignitaries.

• Click on the Sources tab and
  • Select Country ( United States) > News > News Transcripts > and check off those transcripts that you want to search including FDCH News Service Capitol Report and Federal News Service
  • Below the search box, click on show options to search specific document sections
  • Search HEADLINE (For example, chech! = chechen or chechnya or chechnia)
    • If this search yields over 3000 results, try adding another search term
    • If you want more results, search HLEAD (headline and lead paragraph)
    • search by names, if desired (e.g. obama, bush, rumsfeld, fleischer)
• Results arranged in reverse chronological order by publication date
  • To move longer "more relevant" resources to the top, change Publication Date to Revelance at the top of the results list
• To limit your results by length of article, search section LENGTH, >1000 (for example)
• If desired, limit specify date option from all available dates to previous year, date is between )

LexisNexis also provides full text of world newspapers. Search these from the entry screen of LexisNexis using a Power Search.

National Newspapers [TU users only]

Provides full text access to four U.S. newspapers including the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and the Wall Street Journal, back to the mid-1980s.

LexisNexis Academic [TU users only]

" "Kremlin Package" consists of same day, English translations of verbatim transcripts of press conferences and speeches in the USSR by [Putin, Medvedev] Gorbachev,Shevardnadze, Ligachev, Yeltsin, Gerasimov, Maslennikov, Minister of Defense,Chairman of KBG, etc." - Direct quote taken from the LexisNexis Web site

• Click on Sources tab
• Select Country > then Russia
  • Select Newswires for Official Kremlin International News Broadcasts , RIA Novosti , and TASS
    • Official Kremlin Intl News Broadcasts has primary sources such as speeches, interviews, and press conferences
• Enter search terms and select the field in which you want to search for your terms
  • For example: chech! (! = The way to search for chechen or chechnya or chechnia)
• Results arranged in reverse chronological order by publication date
  • To move longer "more relevant" resources to the top, change Publication Date to Revelance at the top of the results list
• If desired, limit your specify date of your search from all available dates to previous year, date is between )

Select Country > Russia > Newspapers for the Moscow News, Moscow Times, and Russian News Digest

MasterFILE Premier [TU users only]

Indexes the Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, which Cook Library owns in print from 1992 - 2004. Later issues available from other USMAI libraries through ILLiad. Cook also owns the Current Digest of the Soviet Press from 1949-1991.

• Click on the words Advanced search
  • Type your search words in the search boxes, as desired
  • On the search screen under Limit Your Results, next to the box labeled Publication, type current digest

• See the section of this site devoted to NATO-Russia Relations