Meeting the Growing Safeguards Burden

This paper examines challenges facing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in fulfilling its safeguards mandate. The paper demonstrates that the Agency faces dilemmas due to an expanding safeguards burden and a relatively static budget. This dilemma is exacerbated, but not caused, by the additional burden on the Agency created by implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Iran, and would not go away if implementation of the JCPOA was to end. The paper argues that there are three main areas of opportunity for the Agency: budgetary expansion tied to changes in staffing, changes in safeguards approaches and technological innovation, though there are barriers and limitations associated with each approach. The paper argues that progressing any one of these areas is compounded by the geopolitically difficult environment in Vienna.