Military, naval, aerospace, and veterans studies: Essentials -- start here
What's here
This subject guide identifies principal resources for the unique research needs of cadets, ROTC and Corps faculty, and veterans at Virginia Tech.
Resources listed on this landing page are grouped into Key databases for accessing scholarly and policy literature; Background information sources; Contact information for the subject librarian; and access to Additional information.
Parts of this guide are also available in other subject guides: Data sources for social research; News/journalism/streaming media; Advice for searching/citing/engaging scholarly literatures; and Accessing VT Library resources from off campus.
Overviews of military, naval, and aerospace studies
Encyclopedia of Military Science by ISBN: 9781412969338Publication Date: 2013Comprehensive, ready-reference on the organization, traditions, training, purpose, and functions of today's military. Entries include coverage of the duties, responsibilities, and authority of military personnel and an understanding of strategies and tactics of the modern military and how they interface with political, social, legal, economic, and technological factors. A large component is devoted to issues of leadership, group dynamics, motivation, problem-solving, and decision making in the military context. Finally, this work also covers recent American military history since the end of the Cold War with a special emphasis on peacekeeping and peacemaking operations, the First Persian Gulf War, the events surrounding 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and how the military has been changing in relation to these events.
Ashgate Research Companion to Military Ethics by
Comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in the area of military ethics. Topics in this volume reflect both perennial and pressing contemporary issues in the ethics of the use of military force and are written by established professionals and respected commentators. Subjects are organized by three major perspectives on the use of military force: the decision whether to use military force in a given context, the matter of right conduct in the use of such force, and ethical responsibilities beyond the end of an armed conflict.
ISBN: 9781317042617Publication Date: 2015
- Military Professional Reading ListsDirectory of reading lists selected for the personal professional development of uniformed (and sometimes civilian) members of the US armed services. These lists typically include histories and roles of the respective services; biographies; strategy global politics, and security studies, and works of leadership and management. Some of these lists include non-book media.
Find relevant articles, papers, etc
- Military and Intelligence Database from GaleMilitary and Intelligence Database indexes citations and full text from scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of the past and current state of military affairs. The database offers content in key subject areas including governmental policies, the socioeconomic effects of war, and the structure of the armed forces. 1980-present.
- Military & Government Collection from EBSCOhost
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The Military & Government Collection database indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, news sources, primary source documents, legislative acts and proclamations, and other publications covering all aspects of the military. Full text presented in HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1975-present. - Air University Library's Index to Military Periodicals (AULIMP)Alternate URL: https://fairchild-mil.libguides.com/AULIMP.
The USAF Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals provides citations to significant articles, news items, and editorials from English-language military and aeronautical periodicals, 1988-present. (Scans of early print version are available from Hathi Trust and Internet Archive.) To access articles themselves you may need to paste AULIMP citation information into VT's journal-title finder or Discovery Search.
- NATO Research Guides NATO Research Guides provide helpful, relevant and curated information on a variety of topics related to NATO's mission. The main resources are NATO publications, official texts, articles, books and e-books, reports, and other web resources that are publicly available on the Internet. They are regularly updated with the most current information. Useful information may be found by browsing other portions of the NATO Library site. Produced by NATO Library in Brussels.
- Homeland Security Digital Library HSDL is a collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and disaster management from a wide variety of sources. These include documents from federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, professional organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and international governing bodies. 1941-present. HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Create an individual account with your VT email address if you wish to access additional HSDL researcher content. See also Essays in HSDL's On the Homefront blog and Greta's Gouge weekly current-awareness posting of papers and articles pertaining to conflict, national security, and defense; arranged by source. Compiled by Greta Marlatt, HSDL content manager at US Naval Postgraduate School.
- Peace Research Abstracts from EBSCOhost Peace Research Abstracts indexes abstracts and some full text of journal articles and book reviews on conflict resolutions, international affairs, peace psychology, and other areas of peace research. You can do cited reference searches and limit to scholarly sources. 1964-present.
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- Defense Technical Information Center DTIC serves the Department of Defense community as a central resource for DoD and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information. Provides the warfighter and researchers, scientists, engineers, laboratories, and universities timely access to over 2 million publications covering over 250 subject areas. All visitors can search DTIC's publicly accessible collections and read or download scientific and technical information, using DTIC Online service. Full text, when available, is PDF.
- Jane's Air & Space Module JANES Air & Space Module provides complete data for air and space platforms, systems and subsystems under development, in production and in service with air forces around the world. It enhances information from JANES’ popular World of Aircraft reference books with open-source security-related news and analyses from government agencies and leading military manufacturers around the world.Access requires logging in with your full VT email address.
- Institute for National Strategic Studies Policy briefs, cases, journals, books in PDF, and more from INSS at the US National Defense University. In the landing page, the link to archived content is at the bottom of the left sidebar. Aside from institute journals, most INSS content has been invisible to VT Discovery Search.
- CSI Publications (Central Intelligence Agency) Links to full-text books, monographs, and other materials from the Center for the Study of Intelligence. Includes full-text access to the serial publication, Studies in Intelligence.
- Joint Electronic Library (US Joint Chiefs of Staff) Includes joint publications, doctrine, and the DOD Dictionary, as well as materials related to education, training, and more.
- Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) Digital Library Largely composed of digital versions of paper documents from the Combined Arms Research Library collections and student papers produced at the US Army Command and General Staff College.
- Modern War Institute at West Point Research, commentary/analysis, and podcasts from the think-tank of the United States Military Academy. Special series address urban warfare, irregular warfare, cyber warfare, civil-military relations, and books. "The articles and other content which appear on the Modern War Institute website are unofficial expressions of opinion...and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense."
- Military Resources (compiled by US National Archives) Wide-ranging links to military reference materials, military history and research, and to specific topics such as intelligence, terrorism, and veterans. Links to NARA collections and publications are listed before the numerous links to resources at other federal agencies and private organizations.
- Military Legal Resources The US Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library in Charlottesville holds extensive collections of primary source materials and publications in the field of military law. Hein's collection replaces the Military Legal Resources collection previously hosted by the Library of Congress.
Military Times newspapers
The library's Access World News database provides -- and archives -- many news sources, including these service-oriented papers from Military Times. Coverage is selective and in plain text: Content in the traditional print newspapers is published monthly: web edition articles are released daily .
- Air Force Times: Print edition | Web edition articles
- Army Times: Print edition | Web edition articles
- Marine Corps Times: Print edition | Web edition articles
- Navy Times: Print edition | Web edition articles
Access World News also provides a handful of newspapers published on US military bases.
For background information on international affairs
- EIU ViewpointA key resource for area studies, political economy, and open-source intelligence, EIU Viewpoint integrates Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports and other forecasts, analyses, news, and data at the global, regional, and country level for almost 200 countries. Some content updated daily. "Two-Year Forecasts" continue approach and format of the former Country Reports; "One-Click Reports" resemble the forecasts but conspicuously do not provide tabular data. Data tables can be exported to Excel.
- For country analyses covering 1952-1995, see Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports Archive, from ProQuest.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias : International Studies This project is the latest collaboration between Oxford University Press and the International Studies Association. It brings newly commissioned articles together with existing and revised articles from the ISA's International Studies Encyclopedia (2017) to form a leading-edge, continuously updated digital resource.
- SAGE Knowledge: Politics & International Relations Reference ebooks from major publisher of research works and textbooks in social sciences. Expandable menu directs you to works in most major subfields of the discipline.
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Archives and primary sources
- US Service Historical ProgramsFacilities vary in their missions but typically make available official service historical studies, orders and regulations, field and technical manuals, and archival materials in several media. They often are located near affiliated museums and public programs.
- Air Force Historical Research Agency (including AirForceHistoryIndex.org; an archival finding aid that describes many documents held by AFHRA and describes how to order copies. Documents are not themselves online.)
- Army Heritage and Education Center and Army Center of Military History (What's the difference between USAHEC and CMH?)
- Coast Guard History Program
- Naval History & Heritage Command
- Marine Corps History Division
For further documents bearing on military history in broader contexts, see the Historical primary sources online topic guide, especially the cross-search tools in the first box.
Find out about federal government diplomatic & military information sources
- Digital National Security Archive from ProQuestThe Digital National Security Archive provides primary documents on U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Subsets include the CIA Family Jewels Indexed information which reveals the CIA's most closely held secrets about their domestic intelligence activities they considered outside its charter, conducted at the height of the Cold War through 1973, and the Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary Update which includes unpublished records from U.S. and Soviet archives.
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1861- Perhaps the most important collection of official primary sources to consult before beginning research on the history of US international relations, the Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Prepared and issued by the Department of State since 1861, "FRUS" is the official compilation of selected documents from the files of the Department of State, the White House, and other agencies. It presents a historical view of American foreign policy and now comprises hundreds of individual volumes. FRUS for 1861-1960 has also been digitized by the University of Wisconsin. The official, State Department version's full-text coverage online is fairly complete through the Carter administration but spotty from the 1980s and later. Electronic documents not yet included in FRUS might be found at their originating agency or in compilations of presidential documents. See Status of the Foreign Relations of the United States Series (State Department) and Researching U.S. Foreign Policy: Publications and Web Sites (National Archives and Records Administration).
Social Sciences & History Librarian
Bruce Pencek
Contact:
Newman Library (MC 0434)
Office #3050
560 Drillfield Dr
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email is the best way to contact me with questions or appointment requests.
Office hours (walk-in and/or Zoom): T 1-3:00 pm, W-Th 2-4:00 pm (Eastern time), and by appointment.
- virginiatech.zoom.us/j/95623507981
Office #3050
560 Drillfield Dr
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email is the best way to contact me with questions or appointment requests.
Office hours (walk-in and/or Zoom): T 1-3:00 pm, W-Th 2-4:00 pm (Eastern time), and by appointment.
- virginiatech.zoom.us/j/95623507981
(540) 231-2140
Ask a Librarian
Interlibrary Loan Services
All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:
- not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
- owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
- owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).
Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.
Temporary, trial access only -- use while you can
The University Libraries at Virginia Tech regularly secure short-term, trial access to online resources in order to gauge their appropriateness to our university's teaching and research missions. These trials run in October, February, and sometimes April. Most trials run 30 days.
This box highlights some of these opportunities as they come available. All active trials are listed in a sidebar in the main Databases A-Z directory and as a tab atop this libguide.
Each entry includes a link to a user survey. I and other subject librarians invite you to email us moredetailed assessments of trial resources. Responses from the Virginia Tech community are vital to the library's deliberations about whether and when to acquire or enhance databases and the like.
As appropriate I will list all currently active trials and user survey links in a resource trials tab in this and my other libguides. Entries for trials I may include in here as elsewher in the body of my libguides will go away when the trial period ends.