U.S. states frequently enter into arrangements with foreign governments to cooperate on issues ranging from economic development to environmental protection. Available in print and online database formats, U.S. State Commitments with Foreign Governments provides the full text of hundreds of these kinds of arrangements. To compile the collection, the editor filed over 650 freedom-of-information requests, including one with every major administrative agency in each of the fifty states. State officials responded by delivering copies of more than 750 commitments totaling more than 3,500 pages. The book contains a curated set of roughly one quarter of these commitments, along with notations that explain context, highlight significant legal issues, and identify helpful academic sources. The online database includes the full collection.

This is the most comprehensive publication of its kind. It serves as an innovative, subnational analogue to official compilations of international agreements to which the United States is a party—namely, United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) and the Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS). And it is an essential resource for scholars of international law and U.S. foreign relations law, political scientists who study paradiplomacy, federal and state policymakers, and the voting public.

The database can be browsed by State (U.S.), Country, or Subject, and it also includes a custom Commitment Index tool that allows users to choose a variety of ways to search, including by text, title, date, state, country, subject, commitment number, keywords, and description.