Research Guides: International Conflict Resolution, Military Affairs, & Security: Find Articles

Scholarly Articles

To find scholarly articles or studies, you will need to use a database (not CLIO). Scholarly journals are periodicals in which researchers publish articles on their work. Most often these articles discuss recent research. Journals also publish theoretical discussions and articles that critically review already published work. Scholarly journals are typically peer-reviewed journals.

On this page you will find a lot of options to start your research, but these are not all of the databases that you have access to as a Columbia University student! Explore the other research guides to find other databases for different disciplines, or make an appointment with a librarian.

General, interdisciplinary databases:

EBSCO: A powerful online reference system accessible via the Internet. It offers a variety of proprietary full text databases and popular databases from leading information providers.
JSTOR: Provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
ProQuest: This resource includes citations and full text articles in academic & professional disciplines, e.g., business, economics, gender studies, health, literature, management, political science; as well as news and general interest items.
Scopus: Provides indexing, abstracting of and citation linking to journals in biology ,physics, chemistry, geosciences, agriculture, medicine, business, social work, and the social sciences.

For Defense Research don't forget about these resources:

Country Reports on Terrorism published by the U.S. Department of State
The Military Balance Journal and the Military Balance Plus database for defense analysis and data

Defense Databases

Armed Conflict Database: From the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Provides information on armed conflicts including terrorism, refugees/ and returnees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), weapons used and their flows, fatalities, costs ($US), historical backgrounds, annual updates and timelines.
Correlates of War Project: Seeks to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international relations
Defense Manpower Data Center, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller)
Defense Technical Information Center: As a Department of Defense (DoD) Field Activity, DTIC operates under the leadership of the Secretary of Defense and reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering USD(R&E). DTIC supports the USD(R&E)’s efforts to mitigate new and emerging threat capabilities, enable affordable or extended capabilities in existing military systems, and develop technology surprise.
DOD’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation
Defense Security Cooperation Agency
DSCA Facts Book: Foreign Military Sales, Foreign Military Construction Sales and Military Assistance Facts.
Global Terrorism Database: Managed by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), the Global Terrorism Database™ includes more than 190,000 terrorist attacks dating back to 1970
Military Balance Plus : Data sets are continuously monitored and updated by IISS analysts in the Defence and Military Analysis Programme.
Military Expenditures published by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs
Political extremism and radicalism
The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database: Contains information on all international transfers of seven categories of major conventional weapons from 1950 to the most recent full calendar year. It can be used to generate detailed written reports and statistical data.
The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database: Covers 171 countries and contains consistent time series for the period since 1988. The online military expenditure database provides military expenditure data by country in the following three formats: Military expenditure in local currency, at current prices, 1988-present; Military expenditure in US dollars, at constant (2005) prices and exchange rates, 1988-present; Military expenditure as a share (%) of gross domestic product (GDP), 1988-present.

Economic & Political Databases

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs online: A wide range of scholarship that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
EconLit: Comprehensive, indexed bibliography of worldwide literature on economics from over 300 major economics journals, books, and collected volumes. Coverage: 1969-present.
EMIS-Emerging Markets Information Service: Provides general news and financial and economic information on emerging market countries.
FIRST (Facts on International Relations and Security Trends): A joint project of SIPRI and the International Relations and Security Network. Contains information covering many areas in the field of international relations and security, such as international organizations, conflicts, arms transfers, and military expenditure.
Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI): Articles in scholarly journals published in Latin America and the Caribbean, or those dealing with topics relating to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Hispanic Americans.
OECD iLibrary: Includes all OECD books, reports, periodicals and statistical databases. Coverage: 1988 to the present, updated weekly.
PAIS: Citations and abstracts for publications related to public affairs, 1915 to the present.
Peace Research Abstracts: Indexes articles related to peace research, including conflict resolution, international affairs, peace psychology, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: Provides access to citations and abstracts of journal articles appearing in political science journals. Coverage: 1975 to the present.

International Databases

Africa Wide Information: Coverage of all facets of African studies, dating back to the 16th century.
Cairn.info: Full text French language publications in the disciplines of economics, political science, sociology, law, history, and psychology, education, and more.
China Academic Journals: Access to Chinese academic periodicals in social science, economics/politics/law, history/philosophy, and education.
eHRAF World Cultures: A collection of full-text primary source materials on ca. 400 different cultural, ethnic, religious and national groups in the following regions of the world: Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, North America, Oceania, Eurasia and South America. Access is via keyword, as well as through geographic (OWC) codes and a topical (OCM) classification scheme.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences: Core social sciences and related materials from over 100 countries in more than 90 languages. Coverage 1951 to the present.
Project MUSE: Current collection of journals in the humanities and history, maintained by Johns Hopkins University Press. Full-text searching available. It also provides access to individual titles within the collection, such as Africa Today, American Imago, Contemporary Pacific, Ethnohistory, and Public Culture, as well as to other interdisciplinary journals which may also prove useful to anthropological research.
VERTIC: Verification Research Training and Information Centre is an independent, non-profit making charitable organization established in 1986. Supports the development, implementation, and verification of international agreements as well as initiatives in related areas.

News Databases

Access world news
Alt-PressWatch: Full text database of selected newspapers, magazines, journals of the alternative and independent press.
Associated Press collections online: Includes a decades' worth of wire copy, correspondence, memos, internal publications, and more.
Factiva: Full-text database providing news sources from around the world. It also provides detailed facts, figures and analyses of companies, industries and financial markets. Coverage varies by source.
GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information: Source for reliable news and security information.
Meet the Press: Includes every surviving program of NBC's Meet the Pressfrom the show's inception in 1947 through the present day.
Mideastwire.com: Offers a daily email newsletter of concise, translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing via the print, radio and television media of the 22 Arab countries, Iran and the Arab Diaspora.
National Journal: A collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal, The Hotline, Congress Daily, Technology Daily, Poll Track, Ad Spotlight, and The Almanac of American Politics. Also provides Congressional markup reports and update reports on key legislation.
World Politics Review: Daily online publication and resource for foreign policy professionals.

Primary Source Databases for Historical Research

American POWs/MIAs in Southeast Asia
Cambodia : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1960-1963
China and the modern world: China-related historical documents selected from three series within the India Office Records now held at the British Library: the Political and Secret Department Records, the Burma Office records, and the Records of the Military Department.
Churchill Archive
India-Pakistan conflict : records of the U.S. State Department, February 1963-1966
Iraq: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1888-1944
Japan : records of the U.S. Department of State relating to political relations, 1945-1949
Jiefangjun bao: Authoritative media of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
Kenya under colonial rule, in government reports, 1907-1964
Laos : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1963-1966
The Observer : news for the American Soldier in Vietnam, 1962-1973
Pakistan from crown rule to republic: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1949
Palestine and Israel: records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1959
Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Force Migration and World War II
South Vietnam : records of the Office of the Defense Attaché, 1973-1975
Sukarno and the Army-PKI rivalry in the years of living dangerously, 1960-1963
Uganda under colonial rule, in government reports, 1903-1961
U.S. civilian advisory effort in Vietnam:U.S. Operations Mission, 1950-1954
U.S. relations and policies in Southeast Asia, 1944-1958 : records of the Office of Southeast Asian Affairs
U.S. military advisory effort in Vietnam : Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, 1950-1964