Profiles of countries and regions
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Most countries

CIA World Fact Book   https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/   Best source for very brief descriptions of every country of the world.  Info on location, geography, climate, demography, economy, infrastructure.
 

Area Studies   http://www.politicsresources.net/area.htm    This very extensive and comprehensive page  "gives access to information on individual countries. It may be used to access all the information on the site for a given country, since the sub-pages for each country have links, where relevant, to all the other pages."   From Richard Kimber's Political Sciences Resources page,  http://www.politicsresources.net/    
 

Background notes from the US Department of State      http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/    brief description of history and current conditions of many countries of the world.  In some cases, very brief. Needs Java. The archive for notes before Jan 2001 is currently at   http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/index.html      See also the US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights at   http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/
 

Library of Congress Country Studies. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html    brief history, current conditions. Click on "Choose a Country Profile only" for current studies.
 

BBC has a country profiles page   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm   
 

Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP)   http://www4.carleton.ca/cifp/   see the country ranking tables, and the indicator descriptions for explanations. Many variables are ranked from 1996 to 2000, for many countries. Variables include armed conflict, gov stability, militarization, demographics, and others.


Global  Education   http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go   click on country profiles.


Global Edge   http://globaledge.msu.edu/Global-Insights   Michigan State University


 

Regions or specific countries


Asian Development Bank   http://www.adb.org/    See their Asian Development Outlook books:   http://beta.adb.org/publications/series/asian-development-outlook    Also see the current Key Indicators at  http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/default.asp
 

Middle East Directory  http://www.middleeastdirectory.com/index.php   has brief descriptions of countries, including government, geography, etc. The descriptions are near the bottom of the page.
 

African people and culture    http://www.africaguide.com/culture/index.htm   Brief cultural overview of several African countries.
 

Brazil in Brief   http://www.brasilemb.org/   click on Education, and then School Projects.


Telling Our Story   http://www.usaid.gov/stories/   "is our effort to let everyone see the impact of USAID’s work and meet the people whose lives it changed"  Each 'story' is a brief story about a single local thing, with a picture.



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last verified 9/20/11
last updated 9/20/11.