Edwin Bacon

Reader in Comparative Politics

Contact details

Email: e.bacon@bbk.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7631 6388

About Edwin Bacon

Edwin has written widely on Russian and Soviet politics, as well as having significant experience of the policy world. His most recent books cover contemporary Russian affairs from two distinct perspectives.

Research interests

• Edwin Bacon's work has focused on issues including democratisation, party-building and domestic security; he has also written widely on the relationship between religion and politics.

Areas of research supervision

• Russian politics and the politics of a number of other post-Communist states.
• If you are interested in pursuing research in these areas, you should first read our advice on how to apply for MPhil/PhD research before submitting an application.

Publications

• Contemporary Russia (Palgrave, 2005, second edition 2010) is a textbook aimed at undergraduates and covering most aspects of Russia today, including society, politics, the economy, and international relations.
• Securitising Russia: the domestic politics of Vladimir Putin (Manchester University Press, 2006) uses the securitisation framework to analyse the role played by the discourse of state security in Russian politics in recent years.
• Edwin's previous books covered Soviet affairs in the Brezhnev years (Brezhnev Reconsidered, Macmillan 2002) and the Stalin era (The Gulag at War, Macmillan 1994).
• He has also written a number of articles and book chapters on the relationship between between religion and politics, focusing on contemporary Russia, as well as on party-building and democratisation.

Career

• Edwin Bacon has served as Senior Research Officer in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and as a Special Adviser to the Foreign Affairs Select Committe of the House of Commons.
• He continues to engage with policy and consultancy networks relating to contemporary Russian affairs. Between 1994 and 2005 he lectured at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, the University of Birmingham.
• Edwin also has an active interest in higher education management. He is Director of the Leadership Foundation's Management of Small Higher Education Institutions Network, and has an MBA in Higher Education Management from the Institute of Education, University of London.

Education

• BA (Sheffield)
• MSocSc, PhD (Birmingham)
• MBA (London)