His research areas include resistance organizations and political violence, revolution, democratization, and identity politics and demography of the Levant. He often combines large-n data analyses with ethnographic research or rich historical analyses. Acosta has sole-authored articles in the Journal of Politics, Journal of Peace Research, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, the Middle East Journal, and Middle East Quarterly. Acosta is the book review editor for the Journal of the Middle East and Africa.