The Cold War, the developing world, and the creation of the IAEA

Elisabeth Röhrlich writes in Cold War History about the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mr Sterling Cole (left), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agecny, Austrian Chancellor Dr. Julius Raab (center) and Dr. Paul R. Jolles, Deputy Director General for Administration, Liaison and Secretariat pause for a minute of silence at the opening session of the second Annual General conference of the IAEA. Delegates from more than 60 countries are attending the meeting. (Hofburg, former Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria, 22 September 1958)

NPIHP Fellow Elisabeth Roehrlich writes in Cold War History about the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Roehrlich examines the early negotiations behind the founding of the IAEA  and the broad coalition of countries that participated in drafting the IAEA Statute. The IAEA was the first major international organization in which developing countries had considerable impact on its formation. American-Soviet understanding during the negotiations was at times strikingly good, and rather than showing Cold War divisions of east and west, the negotiations reveal an emerging conflict between nuclear “haves” and “have-nots.” Roehrlich’s research is based on multi-archival research at the IAEA and the UN, as well as at the National Archives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

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