Political Science 230 International Relations

Search Strategies

When searching for information, there are a number of techniques to use that will help refine your search results.  You can use these strategies when looking for information from the library databases or from a search engine such as Google.

Phrase Searching

Put quotation marks " " around phrases to search the term as a phrase. Otherwise the database or Google may separate the words.

"foreign policy"     "international relations"   "South Africa"

Boolean Operators

Refine your search results using Boolean operators. The three most common Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT, but there are others available. The operators AND and NOT will narrow your search and OR will usually increase your search results. 

AND - Use AND to find resources with all of your search terms.

"foreign policy" AND France

alliances AND "Great Britain" AND "United States"

Germany AND economics

Spain AND geography

OR - Use OR to find articles with either search term in them.

"United States" OR "U.S."

demographics OR population

"foreign relations" OR "international relations"

Combining Terms - Put parentheses () around the ORs if other Boolean operators are used.     

"North Korea" AND Russia AND ("foreign relations" OR "international relations")

"South Africa" AND (demographics OR population)

Suggested keywords:

• "international relations"
• "foreign relations"
• "international affairs"
• alliances
• "foreign economic relations"
• "foreign relations" AND economics
• "business etiquette"
• demographics OR population 

You can combine terms with countries in the following manner:

• ("foreign relations" OR "international relations") AND "North Korea" AND Russia
• "business etiquette" AND China