Mohamed ElBaradei

Mohamed Mostafa ElBaradei (محمد مصطفى البرادعي, ; born 17 June 1942) is an Egyptian law scholar and diplomat who served as the vice president of Egypt on an interim basis from 14 July 2013 until his resignation on 14 August 2013.

He earned a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Cairo in 1962, a masters degree LLM in 1971 and a doctorate degree JSD in international law in 1974 from the New York University School of Law.

His thesis was titled "The right of passage through straits in time of peace".

ElBaradei's diplomatic career began in 1964 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served in the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the UN in New York and in Geneva, in charge of political, legal, and arms-control issues.

From 1974 to 1978, he was a special assistant to the foreign minister.

In 1980, he became a senior fellow in charge of the International Law Program at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

From 1981 to 1987, he was also an adjunct professor of international law at the New York University School of Law.

In 1984, ElBaradei became a senior staff member of the IAEA Secretariat, serving as the agency's legal adviser (1984 to 1993) and Assistant Director General for External Relations (1993 to 1997).

ElBaradei is currently a member of both the International Law Association (ILA) and the American Society of International Law (ASIL).

He was the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), from 1997 to 2009.

At the end of his tenure he was appointed “Director General Emeritus of the International Atomic Energy Agency”.

ElBaradei began to serve as Director General of the IAEA, which is based in Vienna, on 1 December 1997, succeeding Hans Blix of Sweden.

The agency gradually came to take an active role in attempts to prevent nuclear proliferation, with its focus first centred on Iraq and Sudan, in which cases the agency claimed success, and later also on North Korea and Iran.

After being appointed by the IAEA General Conference in 1997, ElBaradei said in his speech that, "for international organizations to enjoy the confidence and support of their members, they have to be responsive to [members'] needs; show concrete achievements; conduct their activities in a cost-effective manner; and respect a process of equitable representation, transparency, and open dialogue."

Just a couple of months before ElBaradei took office, the Model Additional Protocol was adopted, creating a new environment for IAEA verification by giving it greater authority to look for undeclared nuclear activities.

When in office, ElBaradei launched a program to establish "integrated safeguards" combining the IAEA's comprehensive safeguard agreements with the newly adopted Additional Protocol.

In his statement to the General Conference in 1998, he called upon all states to conclude the Additional Protocol: "One of the main purposes of the strengthened-safeguards system can be better achieved with global adherence. I would, therefore, urge all states with outstanding-safeguards agreements to conclude them, and I would also urge all states to accelerate their consideration of the Model Additional Protocol and enter into consultations with the Agency at the earliest possible opportunity. We should work together to ensure that, by the year 2000, all states [will] have concluded outstanding-safeguards agreements and also the Additional Protocol."

ElBaradei repeated this call through his years as the Director General of the IAEA.

ElBaradei was re-elected for two more four-year terms in 2001 and, despite opposition from the United States, to a third term in 2005.

ElBaradei's first term ended in November 2001, just two months after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

These attacks made clear that the more is needed to be done to protect nuclear material and installations from theft or a terrorist attack.

Consequently, ElBaradei established a nuclear security program to combat the risk of nuclear terrorism by assisting member states to strengthen the protection of their nuclear and radioactive material and installations, the Nuclear Security Fund.

One of the major issues during ElBaradei's second term as the director general of the IAEA was the agency's inspections in Iraq.

ElBaradei's tenure has been marked by high-profile, non-proliferation issues, which include the inspections in Iraq preceding the March 2003 invasion, and tensions over the nuclear program of Iran.

ElBaradei disputed the U.S. rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the time of the 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis, when he, along with Hans Blix, led a team of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq.

ElBaradei told the UN Security Council in March 2003 that documents purporting to show that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Niger were not authentic.

In an October 2003 interview published in the Cairo Times, he said "the ultimate sense of security will be when we come to recognize that we are all part of one human race. Our primary allegiance is to the human race and not to one particular color or border. I think the sooner we renounce the sanctity of these many identities and try to identify ourselves with the human race the sooner we will get a better world and a safer world.

ElBaradei described the U.S. invasion of Iraq as "a glaring example of how, in many cases, the use of force exacerbates the problem rather than [solves] it."

He and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".

His third and last term ended in November 2009.

In November 2009, 93 countries had Additional Protocols in force.

ElBaradei was also featured in the Western press regarding politics in Egypt, particularly the 2011 revolution which ousted President Hosni Mubarak and the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.

ElBaradei was born and raised in Giza Governorate, Greater Cairo, Egypt.

He was one of five children of Mostafa ElBaradei, an attorney who headed the Egyptian Bar Association.

ElBaradei's father was also a supporter of democratic rights in Egypt, supporting a free press and an independent judiciary.

ElBaradei is married to Aida El Kashef, a former early-childhood teacher.

They have two children: a daughter, Laila, a lawyer living in the UK; and a son, Mostafa, an IT manager living in Vienna.

They also have two granddaughters, Maya and Nina.

A native speaker of Arabic, ElBaradei is also fluent in English and French, and knows "enough German to get by, at least in Vienna."

Following in the footsteps of his father, Mostafa, ElBaradei also studied law.