Research

International Organizations | International Political Economy | East Asian Politics | Active Learning & Stress Reduction in Pedagogy

I am interested in how international organizations function as both forums for state cooperation or conflict and actors influencing the stability and structure of the international system. How do IOs operate, reform, fail, and evolve, both as individual organizations but also as a population? How do non-democratic states work through IOs, following international norms of multilateralism to support autocratic goals? How do IOs provide new ways for states to cooperate or compete? How do states cooperate or compete by economic means, such as trade or FDI? Regionally I study East Asia, with a focus on China and Chinese influence both in the region and globally.

Published Research

• Wang, Austin Horng-En, Darrell Carter, Naseem Benjelloun, Dhritiman Banerjee, and Sydney Cervantes. “Polarized by Moderates.” Social Science Research Volume 134. 2026.

• Wang, Austin Horng-En, and Darrell Carter. "The Past is Present: Underestimating Fear of Contemporary Reprisals in the Legacy of Political Violence." Political Science : 1-11. 2025.

• Reflection: Carter, Darrell. “Life Isn’t Fair, But Our Classrooms Could Be: Mitigating Stress to Address Rising Academic Dishonesty” Political Science Educator 2024

• Carter, Darrell, Maddison Westcott, Ruth Boitel, and Austin Horng-En Wang. “Puppet Anchors and China’s YouTube Information Operation.” Taiwan Politics, December 2023.

Submissions

• Carter, Darrell. “Death, Design, and Authoritarianism: Impact of Institutional Design on Authoritarian International Organizations”

Dissertation & Thesis

• Carter, Darrell James. "Institutional Design of Intergovernmental Organizations: Cooperation, Vitality, and Evolution." PhD diss., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2024.

• Carter, Darrell. "The great game's new player: China's belt and road strategy for central Asia." Master's thesis, Iowa State University, 2018.

Working Papers

• Carter, Darrell and Andrew Lugg. “Institutional Evolution: Replaced International Organizations and their Successors”

• Carter, Darrell. “Autocratic Influences on the Evolution of International Organizations”

• Strand, Jonathan, Tina Zapille, and Darrell Carter. “Norm Compliance and Geostrategic Interests in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Lending”

Conferences

• ISA 2021, 2022, 2025

• ISA Midwest 2020, 2023, 2024, 2025

• MPSA 2020 (Covid Cancellation) & 2024

Service

• 24/25 Developed Online Course Shells for U.S. Foreign Policy and American Government & Politics

• 23-27 Director of Communications for APSA Civic Engagement Section

• 22/23 President UNLV Political Science graduate student organization

• 21/22 Co-Founder and Vice President UNLV Political Science graduate student organization

• Research Development: Organized and hosted research and professionalization workshops

• Recruitment: Organized and hosted virtual department visits for prospective graduate students