Her book, How States Pay for Wars, explores how state capacity and leadership preferences shape war finance. Her other works investigates the relationship between war taxation and public opinion, defense spending under austerity, and the relationship between economic growth and military spending. In addition to academic research, Cappella Zieilnski is committed to promoting the study of political economy of national security. She is the co-director of the Boston University’s Pardee School Project for the Political Economy of Security and co-founder of the Boston Area Political Economy of Security Working Group