My long-term research agenda aims to investigate how trans/international factors and domestic factors interact as they produce transformative political outcomes at the national or local level, especially in the context of the Global South. Deploying insights, tools, and theories from the humanities and the social sciences, my research agenda addresses various themes such as international human rights norms, United States foreign policy, global governance, foreign aid, democratization, theories of International Relations. I work on several book projects, but more recently, I focus on two monographs: 1) the normative order of global drug wars (sole author); and, 2) a comparative analysis of the ideational and material features of US and Chinese foreign aid programs in the 21st century (together with Obert Hodzi of Liverpool University, UK).
