I research politics and power in the global economy. Substantive areas of interest include the politics of financial regulation, competition structures (e.g., innovation and investment networks, cross-border value chains), and business-government relations. Most of my work is quantitative, and much of it uses methodologies from complex network science. I also research how the global economy is intertwined with global security and development systems. My Google Scholar page can be found here.
My research has been supported by the United States National Science Foundation and been published in peer-reviewed outlets such as Business and Politics, Economics and Politics, European Journal of International Relations, Global Networks, International Studies Perspectives, International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, Review of International Political Economy, and other academic outlets and university presses.
I also occasionally write for lay media, including The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. I blogged extensively for IPE at UNC (2008-2013), The Fair Jilt (2013-2015), and the Duck of Minerva (2015-2018). I currently blog occasionally at Bespoke Human Content. I maintained an award-winning social media presence until its usefulness was degraded by changed ownership (“Duckie” award for best Twitter account, International Studies Association).
I took a PhD (Political Science) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013, focusing on International Political Economy and Quantitative Methodology. I earned a BA (Economics) from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2007, with specializations in Financial Economics and International Economics.
In Fall 2025 I will be an instructor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Until December 2023, when I resigned in response to capricious university administration and poor state governance [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], I was Associate Professor (with tenure) of Political Science at Indiana University Bloomington, where I was also affiliated with the Complex Networks and Systems dual PhD program (funded by NSF Research Traineeship initiative), the Network Science Institute, the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, the Institute for European Studies, and the Russian and East European Institute. From 2021-23 I was Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Political Science.
This page is a repository of my work in the areas of international political economy, international relations, and political methodology. Some of this work is ongoing, and this site will be maintained.