Bio

Dr. Togzhan Kassenova is a Washington, DC-based senior fellow with the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft (PISCES) at the Center for Policy Research, SUNY-Albany and a nonresident fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is an expert on nuclear politics, WMD nonproliferation, strategic trade controls, sanctions implementation, and financial crime prevention. She currently works on issues related to proliferation financing controls, exploring ways to minimize access of proliferators to the global financial system. Kassenova holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Leeds and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). From 2011 to 2015 Kassenova served on the UN secretary general’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

Kassenova is the author of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (Stanford University Press, 2022).

CV

Professional Experience

2018 - present -

Senior Fellow, Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft, Center for Policy Research, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York (Washington, DC)

Nonresident Fellow, Nuclear Policy program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, DC)

2019-2021 - Adjunct faculty, graduate course “Nuclear Security Policy,” Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (Washington, DC)

2011 - 2018 - Fellow, Nuclear Policy program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, DC)

2008 - 2011 - Senior Research Associate, Center for International Trade and Security (CITS), University of Georgia (based in Washington, DC)

2007 - 2008 - Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies (Monterey, CA)

2006 - 2007 - Assistant Professor, KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

2004 - 2006 - Senior Researcher, UK FCO project on Kazakhstan's Energy Strategy (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

1998 - 2000 - World Affairs Correspondent/Special Asia Correspondent, Delovaya Nedelya (Деловая Неделя) newspaper (Almaty, Kazakhstan; Taipei, Taiwan)

Memberships

The UN Secretary-General Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, 2011 – 2015

Member, Board of Trustees, BASIC, 2021 - present

Member, Board of Directors, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, 2021 - present