ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author assesses the evolution of safeguards. He focuses on present safeguards issues, including the state-level approach and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s role in examining weaponization activities. The author focuses on possible future directions for it, including greater transparency and internal cultural change. The 60th anniversary of the IAEA and the 20th anniversary of the IAEA's safeguards Additional Protocol occurred in 2017. IAEA safeguards can be described as a comprehensive set of technical and legal measures to verify the undertakings of states, given in treaties such as the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, not to use nuclear material and technology to manufacture nuclear weapons. IAEA verification underpins the nuclear nonproliferation regime. The concept of safeguards was first expressed formally in the Agreed Declaration on Atomic Energy issued on November 15, 1945, by the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
