The recently announced United States-Saudi Arabia nuclear cooperation agreement has not yet been made public, but from what is known so far, there are serious grounds for concern. If this agreement proceeds, it will undermine the U.S.’ own “gold standard” for nuclear cooperation agreements as well as efforts to strengthen International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Nuclear safeguards may seem a highly specialized topic for discussion for an op-ed, but the level of support for and adherence to IAEA safeguards has serious real-world consequences. Safeguards, applied by the IAEA to verify peaceful use commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), are an essential element in international action against the spread of nuclear weapons. Also important are controls on nuclear technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. Given the importance of preventing nuclear proliferation, it is extremely disturbing that safeguards do not receive the strongest possible support from every government. This may be partly due to the technical nature of safeguards, w