Online Resources
Columbia University’s Online Resources
Columbia University:
Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research
The Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research supports the community of teachers, researchers, and law and social justice advocates working in the multidisciplinary sphere of Human Rights. The Center develops global collections—primary and secondary resources, as well as archival collections and internal records from human rights organizations—and enhances the visibility and accessibility of these collections through high-profile programs, collaborative projects and library services.
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the world’s largest full-text online resource for political science, diplomatic history, international law and business, policy formation, and country analysis. It is a full-text online database encompassing more than 400,000 pages of working papers, policy briefs, interviews, journal articles, and e-books in the field of international relations. CIAO is a dynamic resource that is constantly growing. More than 180 leading academic and research institutions, publishers, government agencies, and journals worldwide contribute to CIAO.
Columbia University Digital Knowledge Ventures (DKV) E-Seminars
An excellent resource for Columbia University students, e-seminars are three to five hour online classes that bring together a professor’s instruction with a host of teaching tools. Some of these tools, such as primary texts, are traditional. Others, such as interactive maps and timelines, are innovative adaptations of traditional learning resources. Still others, such as simulations and animations, are made possible only through digital publishing. Columbia University DKV e-seminars are taught by some of the most distinguished faculty of the University. They incorporate videos of lectures delivered on campus while offering much more than the simple documentation of a class on video. The power of combining traditional and nontraditional elements enables us to give students an experience that goes well beyond what they could obtain in a classroom.
International Conflict Resolution Information Sources
This is a selective guide to library materials and internet resources provided by the Lehman Social Sciences Library on international conflict resolution, disarmament, arms control, and peacekeeping.
School of International and Public Affairs:
Quora Forum for Development Practice
This is a digital platform for graduate students and practitioners involved in sustainable development that was founded by the Earth Institute and Master’s in Development Practice Program. An invaluable tool supporting knowledge-exchange, the Quora Forum provides a space for members to post and receive responses to theoretical or technical questions.
Teachers College:
Encyclopedia of Peace Education
The Encyclopedia of Peace Education serves as a living reference guide, tracing the history and emergence of the field, highlighting foundational concepts, contextualizing peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggesting new directions for peace educators. The Encyclopedia grounds peace education in a solid theoretical and practical framework through the writings of the field’s most renowned scholars.
Outside Institutions’ Online Resources
University of Colorado, Boulder:
Beyond Intractability
Created by a team of more than 400 distinguished scholars and practitioners from around the world, the Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base is built around an online “encyclopedia” with easy-to-understand essays on almost 400 topics. These essays explain the many dynamics which determine the course of conflict along with available options for promoting more constructive approaches. Over a hundred hours of online interviews with more than 70 leading conflict scholars and intermediaries are also available.
The Conflict Resolution Information Source (CR Info)
CR Info is a free, online clearinghouse, indexing more than 25,000 peace-related and conflict resolution-related web pages, books, articles, audiovisual materials, organizational profiles, events, and current news articles. Also available are recommended readings from a panel of editors on 425 topics, an education section, which includes a “build your own” virtual textbook system, a networking section, which helps users connect with the network of people working in conflict resolution-related fields, and a set of Conflict Resolution FAQs, which provides easy access to many of the most common questions asked by CRInfo users.
Uppsala University, Sweden
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) has recorded ongoing violent conflicts since the 1970s. The data provided is one of the most accurate and well-used data-sources on global armed conflicts and its definition of armed conflict is becoming a standard in how conflicts are systematically defined and studied.
Other Online Resources
Global Peacebuilding Center, United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
A great resource for students and educators, the Global Peacebuilding Center extends the longstanding educational work of the United States Institute of Peace, and enables USIP to fully honor its Congressional mandate to serve, educate, and train the American public on the means to prevent, manage, and resolve international conflicts without violence. Through multimedia exhibits, educational programs, and online resources and activities, the Global Peacebuilding Center seeks to engage the next generation of peacebuilders.
Peace and Collaborative Development Network
This is a free professional networking site, with over 25,000 members from around the world, to foster dialogue and sharing of resources in international development, conflict resolution, gender mainstreaming, human rights, social entrepreneurship and related fields.
Pelican Initiative: Platform for Evidence-based Learning & Communication for Social Change
The Pelican Initiative focuses on this central question: How can we learn more from what we do while at the same time having the biggest possible impact on the social change processes in which we engage? It aims to enhance practical understanding of joint learning processes in development and to identify strategies to strengthen them. You can use this space to: 1) Interact with other participants on issues of concern to you through the interactive email discussion forum, 2) Make your own views and experiences available to a wider community of practice by sharing case studies, 3) Link to or upload your tools, methods and other relevant documents as resources, and 4) Keep up-to-date, and make others aware of upcoming events in this field of work.
United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
With extensive digital collections and a library containing over 4,000 items dealing with conflicts, diplomacy, negotiation, and mediation, USIP is the independent, nonpartisan conflict management center created by Congress to prevent and mitigate international conflict without resorting to violence. USIP works to save lives, increase the government’s ability to deal with conflicts before they escalate, reduce government costs, and enhance our national security.