Vincent currently works within four research areas.

• The first examines the tension between the conduct of the United States during the war on terror - particularly with respect to torture, habeas corpus, and rendition - and the established norms within the international human rights system prohibiting this conduct.
• The second examines the role of trust in shaping relations between states, particularly when conceptualised as a habitual ideational structure.
• The third explores the problems of trustworthiness and legitimacy facing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the domestic and international level.
• The last explores the phenomenon of conservative soft power, with a particular focus on Russia.

Vincent's doctoral thesis, which was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2014 under the title US Human Rights Conduct and International Legitimacy: The Constrained Hegemony of George W. Bush, examined whether the Bush administration successfully legitimated its human rights preferences within international society during the war on terror.

Vincent has also published in the Review of International Studies, the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, the Journal of International Relations and Development, and the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series.