Professor Coate's research and teaching interests focus on multilateralism, international organization, and global governance. His specific areas of expertise include: international organization reform, the role of civil society in global governance, and U.S. multilateral foreign policy. He is currently directing a new project, the "Transforming Global Governance for the 21st Century: Creating Effective Partnerships with Civil Society Project," which is a large-scale transnational collaborative research and training program in cooperation with the Academic Council on the United Nations System and the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Prior to this new undertaking, he and his research associates had been awarded over half-a-million dollars in external funding for their collaborative projects. 

Since 1993, he has been coeditor of the journal Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations. In 1997 the Association of American Publishers selected Global Governance to be the recipient of the award "Best New Journal in the United States in 1996 in Business, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities." Also, he has been the recipient of a Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching Award. Among numerous professional association positions, he has served as President of the International Organization Section of the International Studies Association, as National President of Sigma Iota Rho, The International Studies Honor Society, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Governing Council of the International Studies Association, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). Among other activities, he has served as: a staff member in the United Nations Centre for Human Rights; a member of the United Nations habitat ii Secretary-General's Advisory Panel on Housing Rights; a consultant to the U.S. Secretary of State's Monitoring Panel on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); an adviser to both the Bureau of International Organization Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and the Director-General of UNESCO; and a consultant to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. 

Coate is author or coauthor of numerous books or monographs, including: The United Nations and Changing World Politics, Second Edition (Westview, 1997, with Thomas Weiss and David Forsythe); International Cooperation in Response to AIDS (Frances Pinter/Cassell, 1995, with Leon Gordenker, Christer Jönsson, and Peter Söderholm); United States Policy and the Future of the United Nations (Twentieth Century Fund, 1994); The Challenge of Relevance: The United Nations in a Changing World Environment (ACUNS, 1989, with Donald Puchala); Unilateralism, Ideology and United States Foreign Policy: The U.S. In and Out of UNESCO (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988); The Power of Human Needs in World Society (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988, with Jerel Rosati); The State of the United Nations, 1988 (ACUNS, 1988, with Donald Puchala); and Global Issue Regimes (Praeger, 1982).