From Knoxville’s Elite to International Relations
Cameron Graham’s dissertation is examining the rise of covert, unconventional warfare among leading world powers.
Cameron Graham specializes in political economy and globalization, with a secondary focus in social theory and additional engagement in the subfield of critical criminology.
His forthcoming publications include a co-authored chapter with Ivan Shmatko, titled “Theorizing War,” which will appear in the Oxford Handbook of Critical & Cultural Criminology edited by UT Professor Lois Presser and Professor Kevin Haggerty (December 2025). Another collaborative project, “The Knoxville Power Elite and the Urban Growth Machine,” co-written with doctoral candidate Christian Lewelling and Professor Jon Shefner, is scheduled for submission to Social Currents.
Graham’s dissertation, “Neo-Medievalism or a New Cold War? A Comparative Study of World Powers, Paramilitaries, and the Civilianization of Warfare in the Global Risk Society,” critically examines the rise of covert, unconventional, irregular, and hybrid warfare among leading world powers.
This work advances the development of a critical sociology of war—sometimes referred to as critical military sociology—capable of addressing the complexities of global politics and the discreet practices of war-making and coercive statecraft that have shaped international relations since 1945.
Initially focused on the phenomenon of private military and security contractors, his research expanded to incorporate Andrew Thomson’s conceptualization of para-institutional complexes, highlighting how diverse non-state and paramilitary actors—including mercenaries, contractors, ethnic militias, warlords, and organized crime groups—have been institutionalized as proxies or surrogates for state power in various forms over the past several decades.
By situating these developments within Max Weber’s concept of the modern state’s monopoly on violence, Graham interrogates how shifts in global conflict, security, and international political economy challenge one of sociology’s most fundamental assumptions. His project also engages with ongoing debates about the future of world order, globalization, and the re-emergence of Cold War–like tensions, while scrutinizing the imperialist, neocolonial, and extra-legal practices of world powers.
A central focus of this work is the inadequacy of international law in constraining state hierarchies and practices within these dynamics, underscoring the need for a more critical framework for understanding warfare and global risk in the contemporary era.
Graham is currently working as a lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Martin, with the potential for promotion to tenure track in the future.