UK-US Alliance And The Establishment Of International Atomic Energy Agency(1953-1957)

The establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA)was an important part of Eisenhower's Proposal for peaceful use of atomic energy.At preliminary negotiations with United States,the Soviet insisted that it was necessary for all countries to reach an agreement on banning of using nuclear weapons before the Agency would be set up.Considering the cold war tensions and the desire to promote civil and military nuclear relations with the US,the United Kingdom supported the US'idea of establishing of the Agency and participated in the activities of drafting the statute of the Agency.The original text of the IAEA's statute was drafted by the US.The UK did not agree with the US on the question of whether IAEA could set up its own nuclear recovering factories,as well as the standard of electing the members of Board of Governors.However,due to the consistency of both sides in safeguarding the interests of Western countries,and the willingness of developing bilateral nuclear relations,the disagreement between the US and the UK was bridged.With the convening of the 10th United Nations General Assembly in October 1955 and the twelve power working group meeting on drafting IAEA's statute from February to April 1956,the Soviet,India and other countries joined the discussion of drafting the IAEA's statute.The provisions concerning the relations between the IAEA and the UN,and the membership of Board of Governors were most controversial.India made revisions that UN General Assembly should control IAEA's activities and the members of Board of Governors should be elected in accordance with the principle of regional balance.The US and the UK made compromises on these two questions.At last,the working group agreed that IAEA should provide annual reports to the UN General Assembly and it ensures that under-developed countries could have access to make suggestions to IAEA's activities;the election standards of Board of Governors not only satisfied India with obtaining equal seats as nuclear powers,but it also guaranteed the seats of underdeveloped countries in Asia,Africa and Latin America.At the world meeting of negotiating the statue of IAEA held from September to October 1956,there were considerable controversies among countries on the terms of IAEA safeguard system.In response to India's and the Soviet's criticizing of the provision of safeguards infringing upon the countries'"sovereignty," the British delegates argued that the connotation of "sovereignty" has changed in the 20th century,and countries needed to transfer some parts of their sovereignty for international cooperation.However,in the draft statute,nuclear powers did not need to receive IAEA's inspection.In fact,the UK together with the US used the changing definition of "sovereignty" to retain the discrimination factors in the IAEA's statute.India and France made the revision that IAEA do not need to safeguard source materials.The US accepted the suggestion provided by the UK and Canada to give priority to the specific countries to use the recovering fissile materials in exchange for India's withdrawal of the revision mentioned above.With the passing of the Safeguards provision,the statute of IAEA finally established.However,the Safeguards provision was also a complex of compromises among the countries involved in the negotiations.Therefore,it caused IAEA to encounter many obstacles in the process of implementation the safeguards provision.In the whole process of establishing IAEA,compared with the positive attitude of the US,the UK's attitude is more conservative and pragmatic.