ElBaradei, Mohamed

ElBaradei, Mohamed (ĕlbärä`dā), 1952–, Egyptian lawyer and United Nations diplomat, b. Cairo, grad. Univ. of Cairo (1962), New York Univ. School of Law (1974). He worked (1964–80) in the Egyptian diplomatic service, becoming special assistant to the foreign minister (1974–78). After heading the international law program at the UN Institute for Training and Research (1980–84) and teaching at New York Univ. (1981–87), he joined the International Atomic Energy Agency, becoming its director general in 1997. He oversaw the IAEA's shift from promoting the peaceful development of nuclear energy to also monitoring nuclear weapons proliferation, and has pursued a careful and persistent but generally nonconfrontational approach to verifying nonproliferation treaty violations. He was criticized by the G. W. Bush administration when the IAEA would not, due to the lack of conclusive evidence, confirm the existence of alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and, more recently, an alleged nuclear weapons program in Iran. He shared the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize with the IAEA for their efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.