Dr. Benjamin Tkach is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration where he teaches international relations. He previously held a position at King University and held a post-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development at the Center on Conflict and Development at Texas A&M University. He has collaborated with the National Defense University, Joint Special Operations University, and U.S. Department of Energy. His primary research agenda investigates government decentralization, security privatization, and non-state actors' involvement in conflict processes. He adopts a broad theoretical conceptualization of government decentralization that encompasses governance at multiple levels (national and international) and conceptualizes decentralization as shifts from public to private provision of security. His research has been supported by Mississippi State University's ORED/OIDI, the U.S. Joint Special Operations University, and the United States Agency for International Development.

His research has appeared in Conflict Management and Peace Science, Information, Communication, and Society, International Peacekeeping, International Interactions, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, and Public Administration.