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Inspectors for Peace

A History of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Elisabeth Roehrlich

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The first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study of the history of the IAEA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which sends inspectors around the world to prevent states from secretly developing nuclear bombs, has one of the most important jobs in international security. At the same time, the IAEA is a global hub for the exchange of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes. Yet spreading nuclear materials and know-how around the world bears the unwanted risk of helping what the agency aims to halt: the emergence of new nuclear weapon states. In Inspectors...

The first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study of the history of the IAEA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which sends inspectors around the world to prevent states from secretly developing nuclear bombs, has one of the most important jobs in international security. At the same time, the IAEA is a global hub for the exchange of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes. Yet spreading nuclear materials and know-how around the world bears the unwanted risk of helping what the agency aims to halt: the emergence of new nuclear weapon states. In Inspectors for Peace, Elisabeth Roehrlich unravels the IAEA's paradoxical mission of sharing nuclear knowledge and technology while seeking to deter nuclear weapon programs.

Founded in 1957 in an act of unprecedented cooperation between the Cold War superpowers, the agency developed from a small technical bureaucracy in war-torn Vienna to a key organization in the global nuclear order. Roehrlich argues that the IAEA's dual mandate, though apparently contradictory, was pivotal in ensuring the organization's legitimacy, acceptance, and success. For its first decade of existence, the IAEA was primarily a scientific and technical organization; it was not until the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970 that the agency took on the far-reaching verification and inspection role for which it is now most widely known. While the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Iran negotiations made the IAEA's name famous, the organization's remarkable history remains strikingly absent from public knowledge.

Drawing on extensive archival research, including firsthand access to newly opened records at the IAEA Archives in Vienna, Inspectors for Peace provides the first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study on the history of the IAEA. Roehrlich also interviewed leading policymakers and officials, including Hans Blix and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's former heads. This book offers insight not only for students, scholars, and policy experts but for anyone interested in the history of the nuclear age, the Cold War, and the role of international organizations in shaping our world.

Reviews

Reviews

Inspectors for Peace is a tour de force about the IAEA's history and evolution and thus a must-read for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the agency's role in preventing proliferation.

Elisabeth Roehrlich has comprehensively captured the history of the nuclear world and the IAEA's evolution....As the book is based on extensive archival research, in particular the IAEA archives, it is recommended for those who have interest in and are dealing with peaceful uses of nuclear technology and non-proliferation.

Aiming at a wide readership interested in nuclear issues, including students, scholars, journalists, commentators, and general readers, this very welcome book fills an important gap by providing a comprehensive history of the IAEA from its foundation to the present. It places the agency in the broader context of the search for a nuclear order that would make it possible to exploit atomic energy for peaceful purposes while also avoiding nuclear war.

Inspectors for Peace is a wonderfully researched and beautifully written study which offers the first authoritative history of a key institution of the global nuclear order and will be essential reading for anyone interested in post-1945 international relations.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
344
ISBN
9781421443331
Illustration Description
20 b&w photos, 1 b&w illus
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Nuclear Inspectors
1. One World or None
2. Atoms for Peace
3. Cold War Vienna
4. Science, Safeguards, and Bureaucracy
5. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
6. Gaps in the

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Nuclear Inspectors
1. One World or None
2. Atoms for Peace
3. Cold War Vienna
4. Science, Safeguards, and Bureaucracy
5. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
6. Gaps in the System
7. North-South Tensions
8. Chernobyl
9. The Nuclear Watchdog
Conclusion: The Last Man Standing
Abbreviations
Glossary
Notes
Index

Author Bio
Resources

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