His research focuses on American and Latin American political thought, especially the ideas underlying the Americas' revolutions, constitutions, and approaches to foreign policy. Professor Simon is currently completing work on a book, Imperialism and Independence in the Americas: The Ideology of Creole Revolution, which demonstrates that the ideas of the British and Spanish American independence movements were much more similar than has usually been acknowledged. He has published articles related to this topic in History of Political Thought and Perspectives on Politics.