The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an autonomous international organization and the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It was established on 29 July 1957, with its founding treaty, the IAEA Statute, coming into force on that date. The agency's genesis was U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech in 1953, which sought to promote the beneficial use of nuclear technology while preventing its military application.
The IAEA's dual mission is defined in Article II of its Statute: to accelerate the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity, and to ensure that assistance is not used to further any military purpose. Its core mechanism is the Safeguards and Verification system, which involves technical measures and on-site inspections to verify that nuclear material is not diverted from peaceful uses. The IAEA is the international safeguards inspectorate for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), where Article III requires non-nuclear-weapon States to conclude a safeguards agreement with the agency. It reports to both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.
The safeguards system was strengthened with the development of the 1997 Model Additional Protocol, which provides the IAEA with broader access to information and locations to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities. Recently, the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution in June 2026 demanding Iran declare its remaining enriched uranium stocks and allow full inspections.