Namig Abbasov is a Ph.D. candidate (Political Science) in the School of Politics and Global Studies Department at Arizona State University and a research fellow at Global Human Rights Hub. He holds MA in International Relations and Dialogue Studies from Keele University, United Kingdom and BA in European Studies from Qafqaz University, Azerbaijan. His research areas include political violence, state repression against sexual minorities, and climate change with a regional focus on the post-communist area, specifically the Caucasus. He currently works on a research question of why states repress sexual minorities even though these groups do not threaten state security.