Corey R. Payne, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Richmond. His work examines the dynamics of historical capitalism, with a focus on war, social conflict, and global governance.
He specializes in comparative and world-historical research methods. He serves on the editorial board of the the Journal of World-Systems Research and the co-directs the World-Magnates Project. He is a research fellow at the Arrighi Center for Global Studies.
Payne earned a PhD in sociology, an MA in sociology (global social change), and a BA in international studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Making Endless War: Global Capitalism, Military-Industrial Transformation, and the End of the American Century is forthcoming in 2027 from Stanford University Press.
Over the past quarter-century, the US has used its globe-spanning military presence to conduct operations, launch invasions, and drop bombs in dozens of countries around the world. Yet, as war wages, everyday life for most Americans continues largely without interruptions. There has been no draft, no war tax, no rationing, and no mobilization. How can the US wage endless war with little participation from its people or disruption to their everyday lives? Reeling from the crisis catalyzed by defeat in Vietnam, military-industrial elites abolished the draft, reorganized armaments production, and embraced just-in-time supply chains. These changes eroded the power and reduced the number of working people involved in war-making. At the same time, this restructuring yielded a deep articulation of war- and profit-making as it interacted with neoliberal globalization and financialization. The result was an organization of war-making that places few social and political constraints on war. Tracing the historical trajectory of and global contestation over these transformations, this book demonstrates how the same social structures that enable expansive war have also yielded labor unrest, supply chain woes, depleted weapons stockpiles, a hollowed-out industrial-base, and crumbling international alliances. This situation has brought the US and its war-making apparatus to the brink of crisis—and may open opportunities for those who wish to bring an end to endless war.
Other Books
World-Systems Analysis at a Critical Juncture (2022). Routledge.
Edited by Corey R. Payne, Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz, and Beverly J. Silver.
[Read the Introduction.]
Articles and Book Chapters
Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz and Corey R. Payne. (2025). “‘Billionaires’ and Capitalist Development in World-Historical Perspective: Introducing the World-Magnates Data Set, 1450-1914,” Sociology of Development. Vol. 11, Issue 3: 239-265.
Corey R. Payne and Ori Swed. (2024). “Disentangling the US Military’s Climate Change Paradox: An Institutional Approach,” Sociology Compass. Vol. 18, Issue 1.
Corey R. Payne. (2023). “From Mass Mobilization to Neoliberal War-Making: Labor Strikes and Military-Industrial Transformation in the United States,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology. Vol. 64, Issue 5: 481-508.
Corey R. Payne & Beverly J. Silver. (2022). “Domination Without Hegemony and the Limits of US World Power,” Political Power and Social Theory. Vol. 39: 159-177.
Portuguese Translation. (2022). Caderno CRH. Vol. 35
Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz and Corey R. Payne. (2021). “Spatial Transformations in World-Historical Perspective: Towards Mapping the Space and Time of Wealth Accumulation,” in Spatial Transformations: Kaleidoscopic Perspectives on the Refiguration of Spaces, A. Million, C. Haid, I.C. Ulloa, and N. Baur, eds., Routledge.
Beverly J. Silver & Corey R. Payne. (2020). “Crises of World Hegemony and the Speeding Up of Social History” in Hegemony and World Order: Reimagining Power in Global Politics, P. Dutkiewicz, T. Casier, & J.A. Scholte, eds. Routledge.
French translation. (2021). Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme. No. 25, hiver.
Portuguese translation. (2021). Reoriente: estudos sobre marxismo, dependência e sistemas-mundo. Vol. 1, No. 1: 26-43.
Corey R. Payne (2020). “War and Workers’ Power in the United States: Labor Struggles in War-Provisioning Industries, 1993-2016,” Journal of Labor and Society. Vol. 23, Issue 1: 111-130.
Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz & Corey R. Payne. (2020). “Rethinking Core and Periphery in Historical Capitalism: World-Magnates and The Shifting Epicenters of Wealth Accumulation,” in E. Mielants & S.B. Katsiaryna, eds., Economic Cycles and Social Movements: Past, Present and Future. Routledge.
Portuguese translation. (2020). Repensando o Trabalho, as Desigualdades e as Hierarquias: O Sistema-mundo no seculo XXI, R. Goulart Menezes, A. Brussi, & J. Dantas da Costa, eds., Editoria Universidade de Brasilia.
Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz & Corey R. Payne. (2019). “Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and ‘Coreification’ in the Longue-Durée,” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 25, Issue 2: 395-419.
Winner of the 2020 Distinguished Article Award, Political Economy of the World-System (PEWS) Section of the American Sociological Association
Daniel S. Pasciuti and Corey R. Payne. (2017). “Illusion in Crisis? World-Economic and Zonal Volatility, 1975-2013,” in The World-System as Unit of Analysis: Past Contributions and Future Advances, R.P. Korzeniewicz, ed. Routledge, pp. 50-64. (Online Appendices)
Magazines, Reviews, and Other Publications
Corey R. Payne. (2024). “System change, not return to the same: A comment on Tooze’s ‘Hegemony Notes’,” Marxist Sociology: Theory, Research, Politics. July 21.
Corey Payne. (2023). “How Financial Institutions Like Silicon Valley Bank Fund the Weapons Industry,” Jacobin Magazine. March 23.
Corey Payne. (2022). “Financialization Feeds Endless War,” Convergence Magazine. June 2.
Corey R. Payne. (2021). “Review of: Pacifying the Homeland: Intelligence Fusion and Mass Supervision by Brendan McQuade,” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 27, Issue 2. 586-589.
Corey R. Payne. (2020). “How do wars affect workers in the United States?” Work In Progress: Sociology on the Economy, Work and Inequality. June 19.
Corey R. Payne. (2020). “Review of: First-Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship: Elite Politics and the Decline of Great Powers by Richard Lachmann,” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 26, Issue 2. 424-427.
Corey R. Payne. (2019). “Review of The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel,” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 25, Issue 1.
Corey Payne. (2016). “The School of Subcontracting,” Jacobin Magazine. October 25.
Corey R. Payne 