Rico Isaacs is a Professor of International Politics at the University of Lincoln and non-resident visiting professor at Riga Stradinš University. His research concerns the relationship between culture and politics with a focus on how this appears in authoritarian, nationalist and populist politics with a specific focus on the post-communist space, especially Central Asia. He is the author Political Opposition in Authoritarianism (Palgrave 2022), Film and Identity in Kazakhstan (Bloomsbury 2018) and Party System Formation in Kazakhstan: Between Formal and Informal Politics (Routledge 2011), as well as authoring several edited volumes, including the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia (Routledge 2021) and a Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies (Routledge 2022). He also co-authored an introduction to Politics textbook and has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals. He is also currently serving as editor of the leading peer-reviewed journal within the field of Central Asian Studies, Central Asian Survey.
Coercive population control, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Forced marriage, Journalist persecution, Land tenure disputes, LGBTQ, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution
I have been writing the Freedom in the World Reports for Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan for over a decade.
Isaacs, R. (2022) Political Opposition in Authoritarianism: Exit, Voice and Loyalty in Kazakhstan. Palgrave.
Isaacs, R. (ed.) (2022) Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies: 40 Years of Central Asian Survey. Routledge.
Isaacs, R. and Marat, E. (eds.) (2021) The Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Isaacs, R. and Frigerio, A. (eds.) (2019) Theorizing Central Asian Politics: The State, Ideology and Power. Palgrave
Isaacs, R. (2018) Film and Identity in Kazakhstan: Soviet and post-Soviet Culture, London and New York, Bloomsbury.
Isaacs, R. and Polese, A. (eds.) (2016) Nation-Building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space: New Tools and Approaches. Abingdon: Routledge
Isaacs, R. (2011) Party System Formation in Kazakhstan: Between Informal and Formal Politics. London: Routledge