Virtual Reference Desk: International

For additional International resources, see Political Science Research Guide

• CSU Center for International Services & Programs: Provides services to international students through International Orientation and International Student Services and administers Education Abroad, National Student Exchange, and the University's Fulbright Program. The Center also provides support and guidance to faculty and staff in their CSU-related international endeavors and is the starting point for all CSU international agreements, linkages, and partnerships.
• Cuyahoga County Public Library - Online Resources: You can select from the general list or select categories such as Cultures or Politics. Includes resources such as A to Z World and Culture Grams. May require library card and pin number from Institution.
• Flags of the World: The Internet’s largest site devoted to vexillology, the study of flags. The site contains more than 61,000 pages about flags and more than 122,000 images of flags of countries, organizations, states, territories, districts and cities, both past and present.
• Gateway to the European Union: Official website of the European Union.
• Global Gateway: A collection of primary source materials relating to the world's history and culture. It also provides a portal to international research centers, collections, and other resources available at the Library of Congress and through its Web site.
• Global Health Observatory: The World Health Organization's main health statistics repository, it provides data on global health, including statistics by country and information about specific diseases and health measures.
• Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): A data archive for more than 80,000 studies across a variety of disciplines including: behavioral and social sciences, education, economics, political science, public health, and more. Datasets are available for download in SAS, SPSS, and ASCII formats. NOTE: An account is required to access and download datasets and other features. Please create an account with a valid CSU email address to be granted access.
• International Data Base (IDB): Providing demographic and socioeconomic data by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the IDB offers a variety of demographic indicators for countries and areas of the world with a population of 5,000 or more. Countries and areas of the world with fewer than 5,000 people are excluded.
• International Labour Organization (ILO): A United Nations agency dealing with labor issues, particularly international labor standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all.
• International Monetary Fund: An organization of 189 countries, "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." Includes information on individual countries and regions.
• Library of Congress Country Studies: Contains the electronic versions of 80 books previously published in hard copy as part of the Country Studies Series by the Federal Research Division. They present a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries.
• NationMaster.com: Statistics on many categories, by country, with graphs.
• Newseum: Worldwide newspaper front pages with links to the newspaper's site.
• UNdata: an Internet search engine that retrieves data series from statistical databases provided by the UN System. Users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources in such areas as employment, energy, environment, food and agriculture, health, human development, industry, information and communication technology, population, refugees, trade and tourism.
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Global and internationally comparable statistics on education, science, culture and communication.
• United Nations: Homepage for the United Nations.
  • United Nations Multimedia: Includes links to UN news, photo, radio, and television sites in addition to social media access points.
• U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets (formerly, Background Notes): From the U.S. State Dept., this resource provides essential information on the countries of the world: their history, economies, geography, population, government, religions, relations with the U.S., human rights reports, travel and passport information, and more.
• World Bank Open Data: Free and open access to global development data searchable by country or indicator.
• The World Factbook: Prepared by CIA, the Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
• World Statistics: Provides access to data provided by International Organisations, such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and Eurostat.