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Since its founding in 1956, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been the “Atoms for Peace” agency within the United Nations system, assuring that nuclear technologies are used for the global good. However, natural disasters, conflict, and shifting power dynamics increasingly complicate the achievement of this goal. A 2011 tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan; in 2018, the Iran nuclear deal collapsed; and most recently, the Russian war in Ukraine has left the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the crosshairs of active conflict.

The IAEA must work successfully across such politically charged and environmentally precarious contexts, in every country that has nuclear materials. However, with geopolitical tensions on the rise and climate change escalating, can this UN agency continue to achieve its mandate? What happens when countries – like North Korea – don’t cooperate? Is the peaceful and environmentally sound use of fissile materials possible in our shared global future? Join Perry World House as IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi discusses these critical questions and shares firsthand experiences leading inspections in at-risk sites like Zaporizhzhia.

Speaker

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi assumed office on 3 December 2019.

Mr Grossi is a diplomat with more than 35 years of experience in the fields of non-proliferation and disarmament. In 2013, he was appointed Ambassador of Argentina to Austria and Argentine Representative to the IAEA and other Vienna-based International Organizations.

Before assuming office as the IAEA’s Director General, Mr Grossi was president-designate of the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and from 2014 to 2016 served as president of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). He was the NSG’s first president to serve two successive terms. In 2015, Mr Grossi presided over the Diplomatic Conference of the Convention of Nuclear Safety, securing unanimous approval for the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety, an important milestone in international efforts following the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident.

From 2010 to 2013, he served as Assistant Director General for Policy and Chief of Cabinet at the IAEA, having previously held senior positions in the Argentinian Foreign Service, including as Political Affairs Director General from 2007 to 2009.

Mr Grossi was Chief of Cabinet at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague from 2002 to 2007. Prior to this, he served in the Argentinian Foreign Ministry, including as Head of Embassy in Belgium and Luxemburg from 1998 to 2002, and as Argentine Representative to NATO from 1998 to 2001. Mr Grossi joined the Argentinian Foreign Ministry in 1985.

Mr Grossi is an International Gender Champion, promoting gender balance in the nuclear field.

He holds a PhD in International Relations, international History and Politics from University of Geneva, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, from which he also received his Master’s degree. He began his academic journey at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and at the Diplomatic Academy of Argentina.

Mr Grossi has received numerous national awards, including Brazil’s Order of Naval Merit; the National Medal on the occasion of 30th Anniversary of Independence of Kazakhstan; the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria, and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

His honorary degrees and academic distinctions include, the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina’s International Chair for Sustainable Development, Common Good and Peace; an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Buenos Aires; an honorary degree in Nuclear Engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan; and an honorary doctorate in Global Studies from Busan University of Foreign Studies.

Moderator

Trudy Rubin is the Worldview columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of the Inquirer’s editorial board. Before coming to the Inquirer, she was Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, covering Israel and the Arab world. Prior to that, she was a staff writer on American politics for the Economist. In recent years she has written from Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Russia, Israel, the West Bank, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan, and more. In 2019, Rubin received the Overseas Press Club of America’s Flora Lewis Award for best commentary in international affairs. In 2001 and 2017, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq. In 1990 she was an exchange journalist at the Moscow News in Russia, and in 1974/5 she was an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow in Cairo and Beirut. Rubin is a graduate of Smith College and the London School of Economics and Political Science.