Davis earned a B.A. at the University of Maryland and a Ph. D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Davis has served as a visiting associate professor at Yale University and the University of Washington. His research interests include international relations, domestic politics and international conflict, political violence and ethnic conflict, defense economics, and the political economy of development. Davis is currently working on research projects regarding the durable resolution of ethnic conflict, democratization and ethnic conflict, and crisis escalation and domestic–international conflict linkages.