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Global & National Security Policy Institute: Research Guide

Congressional Government Documents

Government/Military Reports & Analysis

Declassified Government Documents

As classified documents are released to the public, they may appear in any of several databases or web sites. No single site or database provides complete coverage, so the diligent researcher will consult them all.

  • National Security Archive (hosted at George Washington University) [NOTE: This is the website of the organization that created the data for the tool listed above. Use the link to Digital National Security Archive to search the complete set of digitized documents.] This site includes some of the actual declassified documents as well as other information. To search the documents use the DOCUMENTS tab; use the POSTINGS tab to browse Briefing Books and Sourcebooks which gather related documents together. Also visit their Blog, Unredacted.]
  • Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)

"The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 350 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies." [from the State Dept. website]

There are several online versions of parts or all of this series:

  • FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Reading Rooms

FOIA amendments signed into law in 1994 added a requirement that agencies must establish an Electronic FOIA (EFOIA) Reading Room. The links below take you to FOIA Reading Rooms for several related government agencies. 

US & International Goverment Documents