Searching Your Topic
You want to develop keywords and search terms for your research question within these primary source collections. A how-to-guide for creating these keywords is available here. Depending on which dataset you choose to work with, try out different versions of your keywords together to find results.
Online Resources
Presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents. Topics include U.S. foreign policy, U.S. civil rights, global affairs and colonial studies, and modern history.
Arms Control, Deterrence and Nuclear Proliferation : Historical Documents
The Atomic Archive provides access to historical documents from 1940 to 2007 covering the spread and development of nuclear weapons.
Digital National Security Archive
Comprehensive collections of primary documents released through the Freedom of Information Act. Includes many aspects of U.S. foreign policy and military policy from 1945 to the present.
International Relations and Military Conflicts
Collections in this category span 1911-1975, providing a view of U.S. international relations during these years, and also offering detailed information on the countries in which the U.S. diplomatic or military officials were stationed.
Nuclear Threat Initiative contains information on treaties, organizations, and regimes relating to disarmament, arms control, and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Information on each treaty or organization includes relevant full text documents, country memberships, an analytical overview, and a chronology tracking.
Statista offers statistics and infographics to illustrate international defense, arms, and armament:
Global defense spending
- Military expenditure worldwide 2001 to 2023
- Change in military expenditure 2014-2023, by region
- Military expenditures globally 2023, by region
- Share of military spending 2023, by region
- Countries with the highest military spending 2023
- Military expenditure as share of GDP 2023, by country
- Change in military spending 2014-2023, by country
- Distribution of military expenditure globally in 2023, by country
U.S. defense spending
- U.S. defense outlays and forecast 2000-2034
- U.S. defense outlays and forecast as a percentage of GDP 2000-2034
- U.S. government - defense expenditures per capita 1995-2024
- Total budgetary cost in the U.S. of the war on terror by category FY 2001-2020
Arms trade
- Market share of the leading exporters of major weapons 2019-2023
- Market share of major arms imports by the largest importers 2019-2023
- U.S. arms exports 2000-2023
- U.S. arms imports 2000-2023
- Export share of major arms exports in Russia 2018-2023, by main client
- Russia's share in arms imports 2019-2023, by country
- Arms imports in Ukraine 2018-2022, by supplier
Arms companies
HeinOnline United Nations Law Collection
This collection contains exact reproductions of major United Nations legal publications, including the complete collection of the United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, the Monthly Statement of Treaties & International Agreements, UNCITRAL Publications, UNIDIR Publications, the United Nations Legislative Series and much more.
UN Register of Conventional Arms
The UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) has received reports from more than 170 States. The vast majority of official arms transfers are captured by it.
The Documents Library is a specialized archive that provides quick and direct access to United Nations disarmament-related documents from the First Session of the General Assembly and Disarmament meetings and conferences in one convenient location that is accessible to everyone. It includes the SSOD-I, SSOD-II, SSOD-III Final Documents and reports, disarmament resolutions and decisions and treaty review declarations.
The Space Security Portal is an interactive map of the global space security governance landscape. It provides profiles of the space security-related policies of all UN Member States, in addition to various intergovernmental organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives.
UNODA - Disarmament Treaties Database
UNODA (UN Office for Disarmament Affairs) publishes information on the status of multilateral Arms Regulation and Disarmament Agreements, presenting data on signatories, parties of relevant agreements and the texts of the agreements.
UNODA's (UN Office for Disarmament Affairs) specialized archive provides quick and direct access to United Nations disarmament-related documents in one convenient location. It includes special sessions final documents and reports; Disarmament Commission guidelines and treaty review declarations.
UNODA Military Expenditures Database
Publicly available reports from UN Member States on national military expenditures.
Find Government Resources
Federal Data Update (February 2025):
Like with any resource, we want to be critical and skeptical of the origin and intended purpose of information. Given changes in United States federal data access that began in January 2025, pre-2025 archived versions of federal data sets are available through these two resources:
- The Data Rescue (more user-friendly)
- Harvard's Data.gov Archive (involves some comfort with coding)
U.S. Federal Government Resources
Social Explorer: Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys and many other datasets.
U.S. Government Publishing Office Federal Digital System: GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
Center for Disease Control: Pre-2025 data and statistics from the Center for Disease Control.
U.S. Government Budget Fiscal Year 2025: Details governmental budget allocations and priorities for the fiscal year.
ProQuest Congressional: Covers abstracts and indexing for hearings, reports, documents and committee prints.
USA.gov: This website allows you to discover government information and services by topic.
U.S. Census: This portal will connect you to information related to the last census.
Congress.gov: The legislation collection includes records for every bill and resolution introduced in the U.S. Congress.
House Ways and Means Committee Green Book: Green Book provides data and other information on federal programs within the purview of the House Ways and Means Committee, which includes social security and child care services.
State Government Resources
Library of Congress State and Local Government Information: Provides detailed information on legal materials by state jurisdiction
Mass.gov: This website provides information on local state policies including housing, unemployment, and healthcare access.
Fiscal 50: State Trends & Analysis: An interactive web platform that offers context and details on states' fiscal health with regional benchmarks, state trends, and various data points.
Find Newspaper Articles
Connection to all BU Libraries newspaper content is available here. Some recommended places to search newspaper content is:
- Boston Globe (1872 - 1993)
- Boston Globe (1980 - Present)
- Best live news, sports, opinion and entertainment in New England by Globe journalists. Includes today's coverage.
- New York Times (1851 - 2020)
- Search historical content with research-friendly search options.
- New York Times
- Current BU students, faculty, and staff may access the New York Times online. Our subscription includes news articles from 1851 to today’s front page. Directions for activating your BU log-in are available online here.
- ProQuest Recent Newspapers
- Access World News
- PressReader
- Full-page images and article images with searchable full text of international newspapers and magazines from the last 90 days, in the original language.
- Nexis Uni
- World news publications including newspapers and magazines, trade journals, newswires, transcripts, press releases and blogs. Emphasis on legal decisions, company information, economic climates, and country news.
