Dr. Benjamin Graham
Director, Research
Dr. Ben Graham is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and the Co-Founder of the Security and Political Economy (SPEC) Lab.
Dr. Graham's core research is in two fields: the political economy of security and the geopolitics of foreign investment, including the evolution of international property rights. His first book, Investing in the Homeland, focuses on the role of migrants in multinational firms. He also conducts research on federalism, powersharing, and unrecognized states.
Research Areas:
- Political Economy of Security
- Powersharing: Inclusion, Dispersion, and Constraint
- Foreign Investment and Political Risk in Emerging Markets
- International Political Economy Data Resource
For a few Washington Post pieces applying findings from Dr. Graham's academic work to current policy debates, click below to see the following:
(1) Why acquiring Greenland makes more sense for Russia than for the U.S.
(2) How immigrants give the U.S. an edge in economic competition with China
(3) how widespread adoption of Bitcoin would threaten national governments
(4) the rise of transfer restrictions as an understudied form of political risk
(5) constraining powersharing, judicial reforms and democratic survival in Poland
(6) information voids in emerging markets (and Greece in particular);
(7) applying game theory to negotiations to reunify Cyprus,
(8) the bar fight theory of war and conflict in the South China Sea.
