Research guides
The open shelves
Defence and security studies is unusually well served by serious research that is free to read in full. These are the shelves we recommend you start from. Everything below is legitimate open access: no paywall, no login. For a source you cannot reach, use Get It For Me and the library will fetch it for you.
RAND Corporation
Thousands of full-text reports on strategy, force design, deterrence and security cooperation. The single richest free shelf in the field.
rand.org/pubs →Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Research and analysis on African security: coups, violent extremism, maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, civil-military relations.
africacenter.org →SIPRI
The reference source for military expenditure, arms transfers and peace operations data, with the SIPRI Yearbook summaries free to read.
sipri.org →NATO Defense College
Research papers and policy briefs on alliance strategy, deterrence and the security of Europe’s southern neighbourhood.
ndc.nato.int →US Army War College Press
Parameters journal and monographs on landpower, strategy and leadership, all free, all written for officers like you.
press.armywarcollege.edu →DTIC public collection
Declassified and public US defence technical reports going back decades: doctrine, logistics, operations research.
discover.dtic.mil →DOAJ: security studies
Peer-reviewed open access journals across security, conflict and strategic studies, indexed and quality-checked.
doaj.org →DOAB: open access books
Tens of thousands of peer-reviewed scholarly books free to download, including strong international relations and African studies lists.
doabooks.org →Databases A to Z
The research databases the library provides through the CARLIGH consortium and the free international programmes. The open ones work today; the licensed ones unlock as NDU’s CARLIGH membership completes. All of them are searchable by name in NDU Library Search, and the licensed ones open through remote access when you sign in.
EBSCOhost Research Databases
Multidisciplinary aggregator: Academic Search, Business Source and subject databases with millions of full-text articles.
search.ebscohost.com →JSTOR
Digital archive of core scholarly journals, books and primary sources across the humanities and social sciences.
jstor.org →Emerald Insight
Journals and case studies in management, leadership, library studies and the social sciences.
emerald.com/insight →Oxford Academic Journals
Peer-reviewed journals from Oxford University Press, including international affairs and law.
academic.oup.com →Cambridge Core
Cambridge journals and books, with strong international relations, politics and strategic studies lists.
cambridge.org/core →Taylor & Francis Online
Journals across defence, security, politics and area studies, including many core strategic studies titles.
tandfonline.com →Wiley Online Library
Multidisciplinary journals and reference works from Wiley.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com →SAGE Journals
Social science journals including conflict resolution, political science and military psychology.
journals.sagepub.com →SpringerLink
Journals, books and reference works across science and the social sciences.
link.springer.com →Project MUSE
Humanities and social science journals and books from university presses.
muse.jhu.edu →Research4Life
Hinari, AGORA, OARE, GOALI and ARDI: thousands of paywalled journals free or low-cost for eligible Ghanaian institutions. NDU registration in progress.
portal.research4life.org →World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
The World Bank’s research outputs: open access, no login needed.
openknowledge.worldbank.org →