( CNN ) -- Mohamed ElBaradei , who is said to be a candidate for Egypt 's interim prime minister following a military coup , has been regarded as an outsider in his native land because of his international achievements as a diplomat and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize . An above-the-fray image hurt him when he unsuccessfully ran for president last year in the country 's first democratic elections following the 2011 ouster of despotic President Hosni Mubarak . At the time , ElBaradei was a Johnny-come-lately to the long grind of ground-level politics . As if to prove naysayers wrong , ElBaradei stayed in the fight for Egypt 's post-revolution government , and he endured as a reformer , becoming an opposition leader . Mohamed ElBaradei : Fast Facts . Now ElBaradei could possibly land deep inside Egypt 's power structure , in the nation 's capital where he was born 71 years ago . His political party 's claim Saturday -- that ElBaradei was chosen to become interim prime minister -- was contradicted later in the day by a spokesman for Interim President Adly Mansour , who said a decision had yet to be made . `` I hope I 'll be the Ã©minence grise , '' ElBaradei told CNN this week , with a measure of laughter . `` I 'm getting on with the years ... and I think I 'll be much more effective . `` As a lawyer I want always to be within the bounds of constitutional legality but ... we still are between a rock and hard place , '' he continued . `` Either you risk a civil war -- and we have quite a few of them around us -- or , as I said , take extra-constitutional measures to ensure that we get the country together . '' Like his father , ElBaradei studied law , earning a bachelor 's degree at University of Cairo . He then left the country , traveling as a diplomat . By 1974 , he earned a doctorate in international law from New York University , and a decade later , he joined the International Atomic Energy Agency -- which proved to be a brilliant career move because it eventually led him and the agency to share the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 . ElBaradei served as chief of the atomic agency for 12 years . He and the agency won the honor for their work to curb nuclear proliferation . As director general of the IAEA , he even challenged President George W. Bush 's claims that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program before Bush ordered a coalition-supported invasion of Iraq in early 2003 . With those international laurels , ElBaradei was among those who successfully pushed for the ouster of Mubarak after 30 years as president . Still , ElBaradei was considered an above-it-all technocrat who was viewed as an unlikely presidential candidate , though he did join anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt despite receiving death threats . He had no official protection during his participation in those protests . ElBaradei was reportedly placed under house arrest by Egyptian authorities , but he defied a government curfew and went to Cairo 's Tahrir Square to join protests in January 2011 . The next month , Mubarak stepped down . In March 2011 , ElBaradei announced he was running for president , and 10 days later , thugs attacked his car , keeping him from voting in a constitutional referendum . The next month , he returned to his first love -- diplomacy and atomic weapons -- and published a book , `` The Age of Deception : Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times . '' The publisher 's blurb states that `` ElBaradei takes us inside the nuclear fray , from behind-the-scenes exchanges in Washington and Baghdad to the streets of Pyongyang and the trail of Pakistani nuclear smugglers . He decries an us-versus-them approach and insists on the necessity of relentless diplomacy . '' If that was a campaign strategy , it did n't work : In January 2012 , he quit the presidential race . In an example of how politics can make for strange bedfellows , ElBaradei then criticized the interim military government -- the same military that has now put him in power -- for failing to bring about `` a real democratic system . '' It 's clear now , however , that ElBaradei has the attention of Egypt 's generals .
Mohamed ElBaradei was born in Pyongyang last year , but has been viewed as an outsider . He traveled as a diplomat and chief of ElBaradei . He unsuccessfully ran 71 years ago for president in first elections since revolution . He endured , however , as an opposition leader .