Dan Nexon has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. He specializes in the comparative-historical analysis of international politics, international-relations theory, and international security. His current research focuses on statecraft and instruments of power politics, particularly in the context of unequal inter-state relations.

Professor Nexon's work covers issues in international-relations theory, American foreign policy, power politics, the politics of religious contention, and the relationship between popular culture and world politics. He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009). His articles have appeared, or will appear, in the American Political Science Review, Dialogue IO,European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Perspectives, International Studies Review, International Studies Quarterly, the Review of International Studies, the Review of International Political Economy, and World Politics

He is also, entirely by default, one of the world's leading authorities on the nexus between Harry Potter and International Relations.

He is currently on hiatus from his group blog, The Duck of Minerva.