Benjamin A.T. Graham

Summary Statement of Research Interests

I am one of three principal investigators in the Security and Political Economy
(SPEC) Lab. I am also the coordinating principal investigator of the Everyday Respect research project.

In the SPEC Lab, I lead research projects in two main areas: (1) the political
economy of international security and (2) foreign direct investment and political
risk. I believe that a better understanding of the relationship between military power
and international markets can inform foreign policy choices that foster both global
peace and global prosperity. A particular focus of my current work is on the
relationship between economic interdependence and peace.

My work on foreign direct investment and political risk involves analyzing the
relationship between multinational firms and national governments. This includes
work on how firms use social ties to interact with governments and the role that
first- and second-generation migrants play in connecting multinational firms into
valuable social networks in the migrants’ homelands. SPEC students created this short video summary of my findings.

My work in SPEC has also included research on powersharing, unrecognized states, and pedagogy related to experiential learning and applied data science. The SPEC Lab offers a free, online self-study curriculum for data management and data visualization in R.

I coordinate the Everyday Respect research team, which is a large interdisciplinary team of scholars who conduct research on communication between police officers and drivers during traffic stops. We have unique access to a large corpus of bodyworn camera (BWC) footage from the LAPD and have conducted thousands of hours of human annotation of officer-driver interactions. We are using these annotations to train AI models that can analyze BWC recordings at scale. Our goal is to facilitate transparency, accountability and learning with respect to officer-driver communication during traffic stops.

Related to this policing work, I serve as the research director of The LEWIS Registry, a nonprofit focused on
improving police/community relations in the United States.

Book

• Graham, B. A. (2019). Investing in the Homeland: Migration, Social Ties, and Foreign Firms. University of Michigan Press. Watch a five-minute video version of the book.

Book Chapters

• Graham, B. A., Johnston, N. P., Kingsley, A. F. (2016). A Unified Model of Political Risk. Advances in Strategic Management (Vol. 34) pp. 119-160. Ungated version here.

Journal Article

• Ziff, A., Barnum, M., Abadeer, A., Chu, J., Jao, N., Zaragoza, M., Graham, B. A. (2024). De Jure Powersharing 1975-2019: Updating the Inclusion, Dispersion and Constraints Dataset. Journal of Peace Research. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A., Hejabi, P., Padte, A. K., Golazizian, P., Hebbar, R., Trager, J., Chochlakis, Y., Kommineni, A., Graeden, E., Narayanan, S., Dehghani, M. (2024). CVAT-BWV: A Web-Based Video Annotation Platform for Police Body-Worn Video. Proceedings of the Thirty-Third International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-24.
• Megan, B., Graham, B. A., Zvobgo, K. (2021). The Stewardship Model: An Inclusive Approach to Undergraduate Research. PS: Political Science and Politics. Vol. 54 (1), pp. 158-162. Ungated version here.
• Cruz, C., Graham, B. A. (2021). Social Ties and the Political Participation of Firms. Review of International Organization. Ungated version here.
• Zvobgo, K., Graham, B. A. (2020). The World Bank as an Enforcer of Human Rights. Journal of Human Rights. Vol. 19 (4), pp. 425-448. Ungated version here.
• Markowitz, J., Mulesky, S., Graham, B. A., Fariss, C. J. (2020). Productive Pacifists: The Rise of Production-Oriented States and Decline of Profit-Motivated Conquest. International Studies Quarterly. Vol. 64 (3), pp. 558-572. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A., Tucker, J. R. (2019). The International Political Economy Data Resource. Review of International Organizations. Vol. 14 (1), pp. 149-161. Ungated version here.
• Nils-Christian, B., Cederman, L., Gates, S., Graham, B. A., Hug, S., Strøm, K., Wucherpfennig, J. (2019). Does Formal or Informal Powersharing Produce Peace?. American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 63 (1), pp. 84-100. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A., Johnston, N. P., Kingsley, A. F. (2018). Even Constrained Governments Take: The Domestic Politics of Transfer and Expropriation Risks. Journal of Conflict Resolution. Vol. 62 (8), pp. 1784-1813. Ungated version here.
• Buzard, K., Graham, B. A., Horne, B. (2017). Unrecognized States: A Theory of Self-Determination and Foreign Influence. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. Vol. 33 (3), pp. 578-611. Ungated version here.
• Strøm, K. W., Gates, S., Graham, B. A., Strand, H. (2017). Inclusion, Dispersion, and Constraint: Powersharing in the World’s States, 1975–2010. British Journal of Political Science. Vol. 47 (1), pp. 165-185. Ungated version here.
• Kingsley, A., Graham, B. A. (2017). The Capital Effects of Information Voids in Emerging Markets. Journal of International Business Studies. Vol. 48 (3), pp. 324-343. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A., Fariss, C. J., Gartzke, E. (2017). The Barfight Theory of International Conflict: Regime Type, Coalition Size, and Victory. Political Science & Research Methods. Vol. 5 (4), pp. 613-639. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A., Miller, M., Strøm, K. W. (2017). Safeguarding Democracy: Powersharing and Democratic Survival. American Political Science Review. Vol. 111 (4), pp. 686-704. Ungated version here.
• Cesi, C., Gordoncillo, P. U., Graham, B. A., Madamba, J., Cabardo, J. (2016). Who’s Ready for ASEAN 2015? Firm Expectations and Preparations in the Philippines. Pacific Affairs. Vol. 89 (2), pp. 259-285. Ungated version here.
• Gates, S., Graham, B. A., Lupu, Y., Strand, H., Strøm, K. W. (2016). Power Sharing, Protection, and Peace. Journal of Politics. Vol. 78 (2), pp. 512-26. Ungated version here.
• Graham, B. A. (2014). Diaspora-Owned Firms and Social Responsibility. Review of International Political Economy. Vol. 21 (2), pp. 432-66. Ungated version here.
• Bauer, M. E., Cruz, C., Graham, B. A. (2012). Democracies Only: When do IMF Agreements Serve as a Seal of Approval. Review of International Organizations. Vol. 7 (1), pp. 33-58. Ungated version here.