Erin Graham

Biography & Research

Erin R. Graham is associate professor of global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliated faculty member of the McKenna Center for Human Development and Gobal Business. She currently is a fellow of the Roosevelt Institute, where she is examining climate finance institutions and green industrial policy in emerging markets.

Graham holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Ohio State University and previously held positions at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House.

Graham’s research focuses on the design, financing and development of international rules and organizations. She has written extensively on how funding rules and practices shape multilateralism within the United Nations system, World Bank and other major international institutions, and has advised international organizations and governments on these issues. Her current research centers on how international law changes over time through interpretation and practice, and on the intersection of the multilateral climate regime and private capital.

Graham's research is published in International Organization, The Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, The European Journal of International Relations, International Theory, The Review of International Organizations, The British Journal of Political Science and other outlets. Her book, "Transforming International Institutions: How Money Quietly Sidelined Multilateralism at the United Nations," was published by Oxford University Press in 2023.

Recent Work

• "International Courts and the Construction of Legal Facts: How the ICJ Made Peacekeeping Possible" (International Studies Quarterly)
• "Multilateral Climate Finance in Pursuit of Private Capital: How the De-Risking Agenda Is Changing International Organizations" (Global Environmental Politics)
• "Transforming International Institutions: How Money Quietly Sidelined Multilateralism at the United Nations"(Oxford University Press)
• "How Financing Rules and Patterns Impact Multilateralism at the UN" (book talk at Stimson Center)
• "Climate Crisis" in "The Oxford Handbook of International Political Economy" (Pevehouse & Seabrooke eds.)
• "Knowing How to Give: International Organization Funding Knowledge and Public Support for Aid Delivery Channels" (with A. Burcu Bayram, The Journal of Politics)

Courses

• International Organizations (master of global affairs course in global politics)
• Keough School Seminar (undergraduate course)
• Foundations of Global Governance (master of global affairs course)

News & Media

Graham writes occasionally for a wider audience in outlets including The Washington Post, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Mother Jones.

• "New research details fundamental shift in global climate finance"
• "US, Myanmar, Libya, Congo and the 38 Other Countries That Owe the UN Money" (Pass Blue)
• "How the US Is Abandoning Joint Climate Action Under Trump" (Energy Now)
• "How funding sidelined multilateralism at the United Nations: then, now, and possible futures" (Multilateralism in Action - Columbia SIPA blog)