探究國際規範擴散，是解析國際社會規範塑造國家偏好、利益與行為，以及探索國際社會共享知識文化構成的重要課題。現有國際規範擴散的研究成果，多以人權作為研究案例，偏重國際組織、非政府組織與知識社群的作用，但是亦遭遇線性思考的批評，難以解釋國家為何不遵從的盲點。

檢視臺灣轉換 IAEA 用過核燃料暨放射性廢物管理安全聯合公約的歷程，可以發現國際組織與非政府組織的作用十分薄弱，而享有專業科學知識的政府組織，僅看重科學技術在核安全事務扮演的有限角色，卻有意無意或無知的忽略國際安全規範，並疏於創建行政、立法與監管的整體安全框架。臺灣民眾意見領袖與輿論形成的反核決策壓力，則是獨占討論議程，並因此封鎖國際核安全(nuclear safety)規範在臺灣被關注的空間。相較於 IAEA 要求臺灣遵從核保防(safeguard)的規範成果，臺灣的內部因素，限制跨國議題倡議網絡的作用，意外使臺灣成為國際核安全規範擴散的化外之地。

International norms diffusion is an important issue by which we explore how the international social norms have shaped national preferences, interests, and behaviors, as well as the constitution of shared knowledge in the international community. Taking largely from human rights case studies, existing findings on international norms diffusion have mainly suffered from linear thinking and difficulties in explaining noncompliance of international norms.

Analyzing the transfer of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management into Taiwan’s domestic law, we concluded that international organizations and non-governmental organizations function extremely weakly in Taiwan’s international norms adoption process. Governmental organizations with professional scientific knowledge have assumed limited roles as technologies advisors, ignorantly overlooking the international safety norms. Attentions to the international nuclear safety norms were distracted by Taiwan’s anti-nuclear calls. As a result, despite IAEA’s success in pushing Taiwan to comply with the nuclear safeguard norms, domestic factors and limited effectiveness of the transnational advocacy network have unexpectedly made Taiwan an alien country in international nuclear safety norms diffusion.