The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has appointed Professor Amitabh Mattoo as the new Dean of its prestigious School of International Studies (SIS).
Before being made Dean, Mr. Mattoo was Chair of the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at SIS. Also a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu, Mr. Mattoo is the only Padma Shri awardee currently on the rolls of JNU.
Speaking to The Hindu after his appointment, Mr. Mattoo said that at a time when the Delhi-NCR region has seen a mushrooming of think tanks on foreign policy and security, he will work towards the SIS “reasserting itself and reclaiming its place as Asia’s finest centre of knowledge production on international relations”.
“The School will produce monthly policy briefs and provide exclusive media backgrounders to showcase its expertise, starting off by inviting one of its distinguished alumni, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, to deliver the Pandit Hridya Nath Kunzru Memorial Lecture Series later this month,” Mr. Mattoo said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also an alumni of SIS, will be invited to the lecture, Mr. Mattoo added.
In October, the SIS is planning an academic conference of global thought leaders on the non-Western traditions of international relations, which is aimed at showcasing the Indian approach to the subject, said Mr. Mattoo.
Established in 1955 as the Indian School of International Studies, SIS was merged with JNU in 1969 as one of its founding institutions dedicated to to the study of foreign policy, diplomacy, security and international relations.
