The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has had two policymaking organs since its founding: the General Conference, where all Member States sit, and the Board of Governors, a smaller body. The Board has grown over the IAEA’s history, from 23 Members to 35 today.
Member States have debated equitable representation on the Board since before the Agency was even founded, especially by developing countries. Three of the questions that run through that debate are: how many seats should be allocated to each regional/area grouping, which seats the Board designates and which the General Conference elects, and what criteria qualify a State for a seat.
A newer question has emerged more recently. Some Member States do not belong to any area group, which the Statute requires for Board membership. As of September 2026, 12 Member States are in this position, referred to as “arealess”.
Senior Research Associate and the VCDNP’s Programmes and Outreach Manager Noah Mayhew has authored a new study tracing these debates from 1955 to today. The study, entitled “A Long and Tiresome Journey: A Negotiating History of the Composition of the IAEA Board of Governors”, draws on extensive archival research, including documents from the IAEA Archives.
The study covers:
- The 12-Nation Working-Level Meeting and the Conference on the Statute, which set the Board’s original composition in 1955 and 1956;
- The first expansion of the Board, negotiated between 1960 and 1961 and in force by 1963;
- The second expansion, negotiated between 1968 and 1970 and in force by 1973;
- A long stretch of negotiations between 1977 and 1999, which produced one amendment on designated seats that took effect in 1990, and a second amendment that, as of 2026, still has not entered into force; and
- The stalled debate since 1999, as IAEA membership has kept growing with no further expansion of the Board.
The author thanks the Andrew Carnegie Foundation for its generous support of this research.