Politics 207: Issues before the United Nations

This resource was prepared by Nancy Taylor. Please feel free to contact me by email at nancyt or at extension 1290 if you have any questions. I answer e-mail regularly.

first sourceUnited Nations Information

Country Information

General Sources

Country Sources for Brazil and Canada

thrid sourceModel United Nations Information

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United Nations Information

Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. 3rd edition. 4 vols. 2003
Ref JX 1977 .O8213 2003
The best place to start the study of the United Nations. The encyclopedia has brief identification articles as well as lengthy articles on concepts, issues and events. A review of the set says: " Ambitiously rich, it covers the wide-ranging field of international relations, including definitions of important terms, discussion of major global issues and the full text, or excerpts from, significant international treaties, conventions, declarations and other documents." ( D. Ettinger, Choice, May 2003.) A must for all in this class.

United Nations Website
The official site. This site is large and complex. It is not easy to navigate to the various useful segments. Here are the most useful ones:

Dag Hammarskjöld Library
Departments of the UN Sescretariat
Documentation Centre
UNBISNET: UN Bibliographic Information System

Basic Facts about the United Nations
Ref JX 1977 .A37 B37 1995
Contains descriptions of the role of the UN and related agencies, with some useful appendices, such as a list of member countries.

Chronology and Fact Book of the United Nations, 1941-1991
Ref JX 1977 .H64 1992
Consists of three main sections: (1) chronology of major events associated with the UN, (2) tables of information about UN organizations, and (3) texts of the charter, rules, and procedures. Nothing about UN policies or participation of individual countries.

Yearbook of the United Nations, 2004
Ref JX 1977.A37 Y4
Annual survey of UN activity. Provides detailed summaries of activities in the various organs and related agencies of the UN. Includes major sections on particular global issues. Very well indexed. Older yearbooks are available in the stacks at JX 1977 .A37 Y4.

Annual Review of United Nations Affairs, 2005-06. 4 vols.
Ref JX 1977 .A1 A5
Contains detailed summaries of the activities of the UN each year, organized by UN organ. No indexes; use the table of contents.

Global Agenda: Issues before the General Assembly of the United Nations
Ref JX 1977 .A1 U525
Detailed summaries of the issues the UN is addressing, published by the UN Association of the Central States. Summaries are grouped under broad headings: peace making and keeping, arms control, academic development, global resources, human rights, legal issues, finances and administration.

Academic Search Premier
Comprehensive index to scholarly journals and general periodicals in all subject and interdisciplinary areas. Some full text for 4,600 publications.

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Country Information

General sources

Europa World Year Book, 2003. 2 vols.
Ready Ref JN 1 .E85 2003
Summary of recent history for individual countries, as well as reports and statistics on political and economic conditions.

CIA World Factbook
Basic statistical information on all the countries of the world.

UNDP: Permanent Missions to the United Nations
Links to individual country information about their mission and representatives to the UN.

UN: InfoNation
Allows you to generate, customize, and compare statistical data from several countries.

Human Development Report, 2006
Ref HD 4904.7 .H856 2006
Issues and comparative statistics from the UN Development Program.

World Development Indicators, 2007
Ref HC 59.7 .W6 2007
Issues and comparative statistics from the World Bank.

Demographic Yearbook
Ref HA 17 .D45
Statistics from the UN.

LexisNexis Academic Universe
Full-text articles from a variety of major US and international newspapers. Choose NEWS, then click TERMS AND CONNECTORS.
.

Sources for Brazil

Governments on the WWW: Brazil
Links to national institutions, representations in foreign countries, political parties, and more.

ABYZ News Links: Brazil
Links to background information sources and news sources.

Brazil: Permanent Mission to the UN
Background information about the Mission.


Sources for Canada

Governments on the WWW: Canada
Links to national institutions, representations in foreign countries, political parties, and more.

ABYZ News Links: Canada
Links to background information sources and news sources.

Canada: Permanent Mission to the UN
Background information about the Mission.

 

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Model U.N. Information

Lake Erie International Model United Nations Cooperation. The Lake Erie International Model UN is the session which Earlham students will be attending later this semester. This site will give you information on the conference and how it operates.