An analysis of a regional nuclear safeguards organisation : the European atomic energy community (Euratom) and the development of nuclear safeguards in Western Europe

Howlett, Darryl (1988) An analysis of a regional nuclear safeguards organisation : the European atomic energy community (Euratom) and the development of nuclear safeguards in Western Europe. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

This thesis argues that the nuclear safeguards system implemented by EURATOM in Western Europe has come to fruition as a result of a complex political process. This process has involved negotiations over the exact limits on safeguards interventions into the nuclear affairs of the European Community. There are two dimensions to these negotiations. On the one hand, they involve EURATOM and its member states over the necessary limits on safeguards intervention in member states' domestic nuclear affairs. On the other, there are negotiations between EURATOM and several actors outside the region, particularly the International Atomic Energy Agency. In this way, EURATOM is thus posited as being at the juncture of two political environments: an `internal' one, relating to its relationship with member states; and an `external' one, relating to its relationship with actors outside Western Europe. By taking EURATOM as an example of a regional nuclear safeguards organisation this thesis seeks to make a theoretical contribution to the literature on regional integration, international organisations, but primarily to the literature on arms control and international security. A series of questions related to the postwar control of nuclear energy are addressed, especially in respect of the growth of the nuclear industry in the European Community. It shows how the development of a nuclear infra-structure in this region led to unease, especially in the United States and the Soviet Union, about the international security implications of an increased number of states in Western Europe with a nuclear weapons capability. This unease coincided with particular political developments within Western Europe regarding the establishment of a European Community. The idea of this `Community' has variously affected political debates about safeguards within the Community itself and in negotiations with actors outside the Community, especially in relation to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The thesis concludes by arguing that international safeguards organisations, of which EURATOM is a regional example, have made important contributions to arms control and international security. In the process, certain kinds of precdents and procedures which have potential for broader application have been established.

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