The Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft (PISCES) was founded in 2012 to use expertise at the University at Albany, SUNY to help combat global threats posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conventional weapons, and strategic items (such as dual-use goods and advanced technologies).
We provide services for Industry, Services, and Academia. Learn more about Our Services or Our Team.
The PISCES team helps governments and industry around the world adopt and implement strategic trade controls (STCs), sanctions, and proliferation financing controls designed to manage commerce involving strategic items.
The PISCES team includes nine professionals with a range of regional expertise and backgrounds in policy, political science, law, industry, and financial crime prevention. PISCES team members have worked with the U.S. government to prevent global proliferation since the early 2000s.
The PISCES team is a global leader in helping countries around the world strengthen their capacity to prevent WMD proliferation.
PISCES has received over 100 awards totaling over $25 million from public and private funders. Our team has provided outreach and services to over 50 partner countries, conducting hundreds of foreign outreach activities worldwide.
Mateo Childs is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Master’s degree in International Affairs at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with a concentration in Global Politics and a minor in Globalization Studies, from the State University of New York at Albany where he graduated Cum Laude and was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha honor society.
Mateo has engaged in extensive coursework centered around security studies, global governance, and economic statecraft, with a particular focus on strategic technologies and the East Asian region.
In 2024, Mateo served as an intern with the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft, where he conducted research on strategic trade control policy in select Southeast Asian states.
PISCES team members have conducted trainings on behalf of, and consulted with, dozens of governments throughout the world in the areas of nonproliferation, strategic trade controls and economic sanctions.
The PISCES team has a truly global perspective in working on strategic trade and sanctions issues through working extensively with the U.S. Department of State’s EXBS Program.
The PISCES team has expertise in the following areas:
Training:
For licensing officials
For enforcement officials
Topics include:
Explore curated resources to support your work in strategic trade controls (STCs), sanctions, proliferation financing, research security, and export compliance. The resources are organized by topic for accessibility and usability.
Keith A. Preble, Crystal D. Pryor, and Luke McFadden. 2025. “SWOT Analysis of Japan — Mapping Japan’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Dual-use research, trade and industrial cooperation between the EU and Japan.” Minerva Policy Reports, EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation.
Bapat, Navtin, Bryan Early, Julia Grauvogel, and Katja Kleinberg. 2024. "The Currency Constraint: Explaining the Selective Enforcement of U.S. Financial Sanctions," Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 20, no. 4.
Early, Bryan R. and Timothy Peterson. 2024. “The Enforcement of U.S. Economic Sanctions and Global De-Risking Behavior.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 68, no. 10.
Kassenova, Togzhan. 2024. “Kazakhstan’s nuclear power conundrum.” The Diplomat, 1 October.
Pryor, Crystal, and Keith Preble. "Tracking the Implementation of Strategic Trade Controls (STCs)." SSRN, October 1, 2024. https://ssrn.com/abstract=5154065.
Preble, Keith A., and Charmaine N. Willis Ward. Trading with Pariahs: Trade Networks and the Failure of Economic Sanctions. Lexington Books, 2024.
Preble, Keith A., and Charmaine N. Willis. "Trading with Pariahs: North Korean Sanctions and the Challenge of Weaponized Interdependence." Global Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2024, pp. 1-16.
Preble, Keith A., and Bryan R. Early. "Enforcing Economic Sanctions by Tarnishing Corporate Reputations." Business and Politics, vol. 26, no. 1, 2024, pp. 102-123.
Kassenova, Togzhan. "Kazakhstan’s Irreversible Disarmament." Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, vol. 7, no. 1, 2024, pp. 60-70.
Kassenova, Togzhan, and Bryan R. Early. "Countering the Challenges of Proliferation Financing." Center for Policy Research, University at Albany, State University of New York, July 2023.
Fahrenkopf, Nolan. "War in Ukraine Is Contributing to the Erosion of Global Consensus Over the Spread of Dangerous Weapons." The Conversation, 2023. https://theconversation.com/war-in-ukraine-is-contributing-to-the-erosion-of-global-consensus-over-the-spread-of-dangerous-weapons-211850
Early, Bryan R., Nolan Fahrenkopf, Michael C. Horowitz, and James Igoe Walsh. "Climbing the Ladder: Explaining Vertical Proliferation of Cruise Missiles." Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 66, no. 6, 2022, pp. 955-982.
Kassenova, Togzhan. Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb. Stanford University Press, 2022.
Kassenova, Togzhan. "Kazakhstan’s Nuclear History: Lessons for the Future of Disarmament." Verifying Disarmament in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UNIDIR, 2022, pp. 51-61.
Kassenova, Togzhan. "Project Sapphire: How to Keep 600 Kilograms of Kazakh Highly Enriched Uranium Safe." War on the Rocks, April 1, 2022. https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/project-sapphire-how-to-keep-600-tons-of-kazakh-highly-enriched-uranium-safe/
Kassenova, Togzhan. "How Kazakhstan Fought Back Against Soviet Nuclear Tests." Carnegie Photo Essay, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 14, 2022.
Early, Bryan R. “Birds of a feather, do sanctioned states flock together?” Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 73, no. 3.
Early, Bryan R. “Making Sanctions Work: Promoting Compliance, Punishing Violations, and Discouraging Sanctions Busting” in Peter van Bergeijk, ed., Research Handbook on Economic Sanctions, 2021. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Nash, Jay P. Asia Pacific Strategic Trade Controls. WorldECR, 2021.
Fahrenkopf, Nolan. "Taliban, Islamic State Arm Themselves with Weapons US Left Behind." The Conversation, 2021. https://theconversation.com/taliban-islamic-state-arm-themselves-with-weapons-us-left-behind-167960
Fahrenkopf, Nolan. "The Security of Arms Transfers During the War on Terror." Academic Minute, 2021. https://academicminute.org/the-academic-minute-for-2021-12-20-2021-12-24/
Fahrenkopf, Nolan, Rachel Brush, and Jay P. Nash. "Indonesia." Asia Pacific Strategic Trade Controls, WorldECR, 2021.
Anggitta, Mutti. "Understanding Strategies of Anti-Nuclear Movement: A Study of ICAN." Jurnal Politica, vol. 12, no. 1, 2021. https://jurnal.dpr.go.id/index.php/politica/article/download/1924/945
Cathie, Ryan. "Bangladesh" and "Pakistan." Asia Pacific Strategic Trade Controls, WorldECR, 2021. https://www.worldecr.com/books/
Early, Bryan R., and Keith A. Preble. “Going Fishing versus Hunting Whales: Explaining Changes in How the US Enforces Economic Sanctions.” Security Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 2020, pp. 231-267.
Early, Bryan R. and Keith Preble. “Enforcing US Economic Sanctions: Why Whale Hunting Works.” The Washington Quarterly, 202, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 159-175.
Kassenova, Togzhan, Lucas Perez Florentino, and Matias Spektor. "Prospects for Nuclear Governance in Brazil." FGV, 2020.
Kassenova, Togzhan. "2020 U.N. North Korea Panel of Experts Report: Takeaways for Financial Institutions." ACAMS Today, web edition, May 18, 2020.
Pryor, Crystal D. "Japan." Asia-Pacific Strategic Trade Controls, WorldECR/D.C. Houghton Ltd., February 2020. https://www.riskcompliance.biz/books/asia-pacific-strategic-trade-controls/
Fahrenkopf, Nolan. "Giving Saudi Arabia Guided Munitions Tech Could Have Huge Consequences." War on the Rocks, 2019. https://warontherocks.com/2019/07/giving-saudi-arabia-guided-munitions-tech-could-have-huge-consequences/
Kassenova, Togzhan. "Proliferation Financing: What Financial Institutions Should Know and What They Can Do." ACAMS Today, September-November 2019.
Kassenova, Togzhan. "2019 U.N. North Korea Panel of Experts Report: Takeaways for Financial Institutions." ACAMS Today, web edition, March 27, 2019.
Pryor, Crystal D. "US Controls on High-Tech Exports to China Will Backfire." Nikkei Asian Review, December 5, 2019. https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/US-controls-on-high-tech-exports-to-China-will-backfire
Early, Bryan R. “Confronting the Implementation and Enforcement Challenges Involved in Imposing Economic Sanctions,” In Natalino Ronzitti’s, Ed., Coercive Diplomacy, Sanctions and International Law, 2016, Boston: Brill Nijhoff, pp. 43-69.
Early, Bryan R. Busted Sanctions: Explaining Why Economic Sanctions Fail. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Early, Bryan R. and Robert Spice. “Economic sanctions, international institutions, and sanctions busters: when does institutionalized cooperation help sanctioning efforts?” Foreign Policy Analysis vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 339-360.
Stinnett, Douglas, Bryan R. Early, Cale Horne, and Johannes Karreth. “Complying by Denying: Explaining Why States Develop Nonproliferation Export Controls,” International Studies Perspectives, 2011, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 308-326.
To learn more about our services and how we can help your government, organization, or business, please send us an email at [email protected].
To reach experts on the PISCES team, please visit their individual bios on the Our Team tab.
