This contribution addresses the exploitation of large data collections, frequently called Big Data, for the analysis of foreign policy. I first provide a brief overview of different efforts to describe the Big Data phenomenon, followed by a definition from a social science perspective. I then look at previous contributions that use large, unorganized data to examine foreign policy issues. Afterward, I briefly discuss both the methodological-technical challenges of handling these data and the existing approaches in social sciences. Building on this, I present the implementation of an information retrieval model based on a network approach. The script-based program identifies potential relationships between different entities (e.g., politicians or topics) in large text collections and allows for a verification of these relationships through text examinations. I also address other important challenges in dealing with large text collections. Finally, I demonstrate the program’s efficiency by identifying salient issues surrounding an interstate conflict escalation.