Introduction to This Page
This page is meant to supplement the syllabus and lectures for my undergraduate course "Geography, History, and International Relations" (PSCI 4820) at the University of North Texas. It is organized along the same outline as the reading list for the course, to help students who wish to go beyond the original assigned readings.
Obviously, this page -- like any other page on the Web -- is a work in progress. I will do my best to keep it up-to-date throughout the semester. Unfortunately, many of these links may be redirected or even removed from the Web by the end of the semester (one semester I found that over one-third of all of the links on one of my pages broke between September and December). I would appreciate being informed via email if you find any broken links on this page, so that I can attempt to fix or delete the link in question.
Note that this page is in need of serious updating - I have not checked many of these resources for over a decade, and only in 2018 did I finally merge them all into one place where I can start organizing them and verifying that they still exist. I will work to verify these links, organize this page, and add more current resources during the Fall 2019 semester when I teach this course.
Introduction to Contexts
- Context and Word Meaning (think about how word meaning varies across contexts, or how the same word can mean very different things in different contexts)
- Context and the Stock Market (think about how changes in the stock market , both gains and losses, may seem more or less noteworthy when considered in context, such as relative to the total value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average)
- Dow Jones Trivia (includingthe largest absolute and percentage single-day gains and losses)
- biggest gains and crashes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nations, States, and World Politics
- Number of (active or potential) national-type groups:
- The Minorities at Risk project collects and reports data on politically active minority groups around the world, including information on groups in each country)
- Ethnologue: Languages of the World (includes information on languages in each country,among many other useful resources)
- GeoNative offers extensive information about world minorities; see also their links)
- EuroMosaic (offering reports on minorities in Europe, sorted by language and by state)
- Center For Russian Studies' Ethnic Groups Database
- Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
- Minorities at Risk data (discussed in class as a useful compilation of data on politically active minority groups)
- Ethnologue (another useful compilation of minorities, focusing on languages around the world)
- Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) (a group of self-declared nations seeking political recognition and/or independence -- some that most outside observers would agree are legitimate, some not)
- Quasi-states: Dominion of Melchizedek, League of Secessionist States, and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
- Kurdistan: see web sites from the American Kurdish Information Network, Kurdish Information Network, Kurdistan Observer, Kurdistan Web, and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Quebec: see web sites from the (francophone) Parti Quebecois,
(anglophone) Alliance Quebec, and
Quebec government
- Quebec Referendum on the Web
- World History Archives: Quebec and Quebec Separatism
- News collections: from CBC News and Yahoo!
Migration and Refugees
4.
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees (see especially their statistics page, country reports on refugee-related issues, and 1998 statistical overview of refugees and others of concern)
- U.S. Committee for Refugees (refugees.org) (see especially their pages on refugee issues and topics, 1999 statistics, and country reports)
- South-to-North Migration Flows (data from the UN Development Program)
- Historical Census Data on the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 1850-1990 (from the US Census Bureau)
- ERCOMER: European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations
- Federation for American Immigration Reform
- International Organization for Migration (IOM)
- ReliefWeb ("serving the information needs of the humanitarian community")
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
- Cuban Influence in Miami:
- "Cuban-Americans in Miami" (lecture notes from Prof. Miguel Angel Centeno's Sociology 338, "Sociology of Latinos in the U.S.," at Princeton University)
- Alejandro Portes, "Morning in Miami: A New Era in Cuban-American Politics" (from The American Prospect)
- Dario Moreno of FIU has written a number of relevant chapters and articles, including Cuban-American Political Empowerment, Cuban influence on the 1988, 1992, and 1996 presidential elections, and The Political Attitude of Young Cubans, as well as brief summaries of data on Cuban-American foreign policy attitudes and Dade County and Florida population
- Trying to Reconcile (from a Dallas Morning News report on Cuba in Evolution)
- Thomas D. Boswell, Implications of Demographic Changes in Florida
- Francis J. Sicius, "Cubans in Miami: An Historic Perspective" (from the December 1998 issue of Tequesta, available from the Cuban Information Archives (cuban-exile.com) web site)
- Important organizations: Cuban American National Foundation and Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate)
- Immigrants in Germany:
- Palestinian Refugees:
- UNISPAL: UN Information System on the Question of Palestine (see also a collection of UN Documents on Palestinian Refugees
- Palestinian Refugee Research Net (from McGill University in Canada)
- Issue Brief: Palestinian Refugees (from the Canada-Israel Committee)
- Palestine-Net
- Rwanda and Burundi Refugee Camps:
- UNHCR offers country reports on both Rwanda and Burundi
- The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance offers pages on both Rwanda and Burundi
- The Minorities at Risk project offers country reports on both Rwanda and Burundi
- The Return Home: Rumours and Realities (from Amnesty International)
- Deadlock in the Rwandan Refugee Crisis: Virtual Standstill on Repatriation (from Doctors without Borders)
Freshwater and River Issues
- AquaStat (extensive information and data about water scarcity for dozens of countries, from the UN FAO)
- The UN has produced a Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World
- Water: Critical Shortages Ahead? and The Decline of Freshwater Ecosystems(from the World Resources Institute)
- Freshwater data tables(in PDF format, from the WRI's World Resources 1998-99 report)
- AAAS Atlas of Population and the Environment: Fresh Water
- AquaStat (extensive information and data about water scarcity for dozens of countries, from the UN FAO)
- Green Cross International's Water Programs ("Preventing And Resolving Conflicts Over Natural Resources")
- See also WaterTreaty.org, their campaign for global access to safe drinking water
- Global Water Partnership
- HydroSHEDS (a global hydrological database from the WWF's Conservation Science Program; see also the USGS download page for this database.)
- International Arid Lands Consortium
- International Glossary of Hydrology
- International Water Law Project (IWLP)
- International Waters Learning Exchange and Research Network (IW:LEARN)
- National Drought Mitigation Center
- Pacific Institute (WorldWater.org)
- Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation (PWCMT) at Oregon State University
- Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
- UN-Water
- UN System-wide Earthwatch: Freshwater
- UNEP: Freshwater
- UNESCO: Water Portal
- UNICEF: Water, Environment, and Sanitation
- WaterWiki
- WHO: Water, Sanitation, and Health
- WMO: Water
- World Bank: Water Supply and Sanitation
- World Resources Institute (WRI): Earthtrends - Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems
- World Water Council
- Atlas of International Freshwater Agreements
- Basins at Risk project (from Oregon State University)
- Case Studies of Transboundary River Dispute Resolution (separate studies of 19 cross-border river/freshwater issues)
- International Freshwater Treaties Database (from Oregon State University; more than 400 treaties over rivers, dating back to 1820)
- International River Basin Registry (from Oregon State University; data on every current international river basin)
- International River Basin Organizations Data (from Oregon State University; data on every current international organization covering an international river basin)
- International Water Event Database (from Oregon State University; thousands of events since 1950, categorized by river, participants, and type of event)
- Pacific Institute's Water Conflict Chronology
- Transboundary Freshwater Spatial Database (from Oregon State University)
- U.S. Interstate Freshwater Compacts Database (data on 39 compacts over rivers between U.S. states)
- UN Water Development and Management Unit (part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization devoted to water-related questions; see especially their Aquastat database)
Examples of Cooperation over Rivers
- International Boundary Water Commission (U.S./Mexico)
- International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River
- International Joint Commission (U.S./Canada)
- Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia
- Mekong River Commission
Examples of Conflict over Rivers
- ICE Project case studies:
- Jad Isaac and Leonardo Hosh, "Roots of the Water Conflict in the Middle East"
- Stephan Libiszewski, "Water Disputes in the Jordan Basin Region and their Role in the Resolution of the Arab-Israeli Conflict"
- Miriam Lowi, "Political and Institutional Responses to Transboundary Water Disputes in the Middle East"
Fisheries and Maritime Issues
The Oceans
- General Fishing and Maritime Issues:
- UN Oceans and Law of the Sea Page
- The UN FAO Fisheries Department offers useful resources, including a comprehensive 1996 report on the State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture
- Diminishing Returns: World Fisheries under Pressure (from the World Resources Institute)
- Oceans and Fisheries data tables (in PDF format, from the WRI's World Resources 1998-99 report)
- Oceans in Peril (from the Smithsonian)
- WINDandSEA (from the NOAA)
- Ocean Planet Homepage (from NASA)
- NOAA Coral Health and Monitoring Program
- ReefBase
- UNEP's Islands site addresses a number of ocean-related issues.
- Ocean Conservancy
- Seaweb
- UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission
Fisheries
- The World Resources Institute provides a variety of reports and data related to numerous resources and other environmental topics.
- UN Divison for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (a variety of resources related to maritime issues and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a.k.a. UNCLOS)
- UN Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization devoted to fish-related questions; see especially the biannual State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture)
- NOAA Fisheries Service
- Pelagic Fisheries Research Program Page
- UN FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
- FishBase : A Global Information System on Fishes
- World Wildlife Fund's Marine Conservation page
Transnational Problems
- Earthwatch (from the UN Environmental Program; see especially their list of emerging problems)
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (an international body set up by the World Meteorological Organization/WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme/UNEP to investigate global climate change. The body includes hundreds of members ranging from governmental representatives to prominent world scientists, reflecting a wide variety of backgrounds, national origins, and views of global warming.)
- About the IPCC
- Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report - Summary for Policymakers (a summary version of their 2007 report, which is widely considered the most authoritative single report on climate change right now - although some argue that it goes too far and others that it doesn't go far enough. The full text of the massive report and a number of supporting documents, graphics, and PowerPoint presentations are available on the IPCC web site, but this 24-page summary is much more approachable. See also their Introduction to this report, which explains the scientific meaning of terms like "very likely" and "unlikely" as used in the report. You may also be interested in Wikipedia's summary of the report, although all standard disclaimers about the use of Wikipedia on current or controversial topics apply...)
- Acid Rain (General resources)
- Acid Rain: A Student's ourcebook and Acid Rain Environmental Effects FactSheet (from the US Environmental Protection Agency)
- Acid Rain and its Effects (from Penn State University)
- Effects of Acid Rain on Forests, People, and Water (from the EPA)
- Acid Deposition (from Western Maryland College)
- Effects of Acid Rain on Freshwater Ecosystems (a review of a 1988 paper from D.W. Schindler in Science)
- Acid Rain in North America
- The Case Against the Rain: A Report on Acid Precipitation and Ontario Programs for Remedial Action (a review of an October 1980 report from Ontario, Canada's Ministry of the Environment)
- Early 1980s News Articles on Acid Rain (focusing on acid rain in Canada)
- The History and Fight against Acid Rain (from the SWOOPE Acid Rain Project at Spring Harbor Environmental Middle School in Madison, WI)
- The Chain of Acid Rain (from the Muskoka Lakes Association in Canada)
- Acid Rain Laws, Regulations, and Agreements (from the EPA; includes information on the US-Canada Air Quality Agreement)
- Acid Rain Action Plan (a proposal from the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers)
- Acidic Deposition (Acid Rain) (by R. Kent Schreiber of the US National Biological Service)
- Isopleth maps of the US (a variety of online maps of the concentration and deposition of various pollutants; from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program at Illinois)
- Acid Rain in Europe
- Acid Rain 2000: The Facts (from the Pitsford Hall weather station in the UK; see especially Table 2 - this link shows the same figure at another UK site - which lists the percentage of acid rain in each European country coming from external sources beyond the country's borders)
- All's Not Quiet on the Western Front: Europe's Continuing Environmental Battle (from Environmental Health Perspectives)
- Strategic Environmental Issues in Central and Eastern Europe (from the Regional Environmental Center; see especially their assessment of environmental assets and damages in each country)
- Places That Have Been Affected by Acid Rain (from Penn State University)
- Chernobyl Disaster
- Chernobyl: Ten Years On (a 1995 report from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency)
- Ten Years of the Chernobyl Era (a 1996 article by Yuri M. Shcherbak from Scientific American)
- Chernobyl and Trade (a case study from the Trade and Environment Database)
- Chernobyl Fallout Data: Annotated Bibliography (from the Center for Biological Monitoring; includes country reports for countries beginning with A to H, I to R, S to Z, and the United States)
- FSU Researchers Monitor The Air (a 1999 story from the Florida State Times about FSU physicists who detected Cherbobyl radiation in Florida and who are now monitoring Cuba for radiation releases)
- The Chernobyl Accident: Communicating the Consequences" (from the International Atomic Energy Agency)
- Chernobyl: Ten Years Later (from the Canadian Nuclear Association)
- Global Warming
- EPA Global Warming site (see especially their pages devoted to climate, emissions, and impacts of global warming, their international emissionslinks, and theiir discussion of the impacts on each U.S. state)
- Climate of 1999: Annual Review (a 2000 NOAA report with global-, U.S.-, and U.S. state-level data; see also their Climate Resources)
- Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Warming site
- World Resource Institute's Climate Change site (their Global Climate Hot Map provides access to a variety of early warning signs related to global warming for different regions around the world, including North America)
- Global Climate Change (a 1999 Congressional Research Service report for Congress)
- The Climate Institute
- Environmental Defense Fund's Global Warming page
- World Wildlife Fund's Climate Change page
- EPA Climate Change and Ozone resources
- Federation of American Scientists - Energy and the Environment
- Trends Online: A Compendium of Data on Global Change (from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center/CDIAC at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
- UNEP/GRID-Arendal Climate Change resources
- Woods Hole Research Center - Global Warming (The Warming of the Earth) resources
Geography as a Facilitating Condition for Conflict
- Appropriate Web resources will be added when we cover this topic in class
Territorial Claims
- My ICOW research project also focuses on territorial claims.
- Resources on the intangible value of territory:
- International Council on Monuments and Sites
- Links to the Past (from the U.S. National Park Service; includes a variety of information on various national parks and monuments)
- The Sacred Landscape
- Association for Borderlands Studies
- Frontiers and Boundaries (from Wilson Krukoski; also available in Spanish, Portuguese, and French)
- International Boundaries Research Unit / Center for Borders Research (from Durham University)
- International Boundary Consultants
- Borderbase (an interesting site with pictures of as many international borders as possible, trying to give more life and meaning to each border than is possible by seeing lines on a map. See also Peter Hering's Border Pictures site.)
- The Corner Corner (from Brian J. Butler; a page with information on each tripoint between U.S. states. See also David Mark's TriState, USA.)
- International Boundary Studies (a series of monographs produced by the Geographer of the U.S. Department of State between the 1960s-1980s, published online by the Florida State University Law Library)
Regional Settings for Conflict
- Appropriate Web resources will be added when we cover this topic in class
Geography and Economics
Trade, Aid, and Development
- General Trade and Development-Related Resources
- UN Development Program and UNICEF
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (see especially their statistics page)
- International Trade and Development Centre (a joint venture of the World Bank and World Trade Organization)
- 1998 World Development Report (from the World Bank)
- Least Developed Countries
- World Bank and International Monetary Fund
- World Trade Organization
- OAS Foreign Trade Unit
- OECD Indicators of Economic Development (includes pages with maps, charts, a list of indicators, and links to data sources)
- Research Papers on Geography and Trade/Development (note that many of these use extensive statistics, but they can still give you an idea of what is currently being done)
- Evenett and Keller, "On Theories Explaining the Success of the Gravity Equation" (from NBER)
- Deardorff, "Determinants of Bilateral Trade: Does Gravity Work in a Neoclassical World?" (from NBER)
- Gallup and Sachs, "Geography and Economic Development" (from HIID)
- Rauch, "Networks versus Markets in International Trade" (from NBER)
- Jared Diamond, "Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication." Nature 418 (8 August 2002): 700-707.
Oil and Natural Gas
- U.S. Energy Information Administration
- BP Statistical Review of World Energy (see especially their downloadable current and historical data)
- OPEC web site
- The US government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) provides public access to a variety of energy-related data, including data on oil reserves, oil production, oil consumption, and oil imports and exports
Other Resources
- International Institute for Sustainable Development
- Resource Renewal Institute
- Resources for the Future
- World Resources Institute
- SD Dimensions: Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (from the UN FAO)
Regional Integration
- Regional Trade Agreements
- Regional Trade Agreements and U.S. Agriculture (a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
- Bayoumi and Eichengreen, "Is Regionalism simply a Diversion? Evidence from the Evolution of the EC and EFTA" (from NBER)
- Blomstrom and Kokko, "Regional Integration and Foreign Direct Investment" (from NBER)
- Frankel, Stein, and Wei, "Continental Trading Blocs: Are They Natural or Super-Natural?" (from NBER)
- NAFTA: see web resources from
- NAFTAnet
- UT-Austin's Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade (with graphs and data in a section called Tracking U.S. Trade that covers the period before and after NAFTA)
- UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center
- Texas A&M's NAFTA Information Center
- European Union (see also European Integration Online Papers)
- Mercosur
- Paul Meartz, Introduction to Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America
History as a Context
A.
- References to Hitler in recent world events:
- Timothy Garton Ash, "The New Adolf Hitler?" (from CNN/Time's AllPolitics site; an essay on historical references during the Kosovo conflict)
- Saddam Hussein: Could He Be Another Adolf Hitler?
- Nick Gillespie (1996), Fuhrer Furor: Is Milosevic A Hitler? (from Reason magazine online)
Learning from History
- JSTOR: Ole R. Holsti and James N. Rosenau (1980), "Does Where You Stand Depend on When You Were Born? The Impact of Generation on Post-Vietnam Foreign Policy Beliefs." Public Opinion Quarterly 44: 1-22.
History and International Cooperation
- Appropriate Web resources will be added when we cover this topic in class
Colonial Legacies
D. The Impact of Colonialism
- Alesina and Dollar, "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?" (from NBER)
- Rauch, "Networks versus Markets in International Trade" (from NBER)
Crises, Wars, and Rivalries
Crises and Wars
- Impact of World War I: World War I Reverberates through History (from ABC News' "The Century")
Rivalry
- The Origins of the Cold War and 1989: The Walls Came Tumbling Down (from The History Guide's "Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe")
- The Cold War (1946-1990) (from Historic American Engineering Record; emphasizes technology and the arms race)
- The Cold War Begins and The End of the Cold War (from the World Book Encyclopedia; see also a series of linked articles in between these two)
- U.S. Perspectives on the Soviet Union
- A Concrete Curtain: The Life and Death of the Berlin Wall
- CNN's Cold War site
- Cold War International History Project
- The Cold War Museum
- Cold War Policies 1945-1991
History and International Economics
H.
Barriers, Waves, and Norms
- Appropriate Web resources will be added when we cover this topic in class
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Last updated: 30 July 2018
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