Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind: Soziologie der Sozial- und Selbsttechnologien; Gouvernementalitätsstudien; Kultursoziologie;Anthropologie; Soziologie des Krieges und des Militärs.
Under Article 13 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights he wrote: "That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."