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Written by: JK Monitor News Network

Published: 08 February 2024

JAMMU: The Jawaharlal Nehru University has appointed one of India’s most distinguished Professors in International Relations & Foreign Policy, Professor Amitabh Mattoo, as the new Dean of its prestigious School of International Studies (SIS).

SIS is one of  the world’s foremost as well as one of the largest and oldest institutions dedicated to to the study of foreign policy, diplomacy, security and international relations. It was inaugurated in 1955 by President S Radhakrishnan and joined JNU as one of its founding Schools in 1969. It has been often described as the Asian equivalent of  the Kennedy School of Harvard University.

The Vice Chancellor Prof Shantishree D Pandit, herself a renowned scholar of IR, has made this significant appointment as SIS begins the celebrations of the 70th year of its founding. Both External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar and Finsnce Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman are alumni of the School.

In October, the School is planning an academic conference of global thought leaders on non-western traditions of International Relations, which will showcase Bhartiya thinking on IR. The School will produce monthly policy briefs and provide exclusive media backgrounders to showcase its expertise at a time when the NCR has seen a mushrooming of think tanks on foreign policy and security. SIS is reasserting itself and reclaiming its place as Asia’s finest centre of Knowledge Production & Knowledge Transfer on International Relations.

Before being appointed Dean, Prof Amitabh Mattoo was Professor and Chair of the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament at SIS. He was also concurrently Honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne (founder CEO of the Australia Institute) and Deputy Chair of the German Institute of Global & Area Studies.  Mattoo is the President of the Indian Association of International Studies.

A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu, a cabinet ranked Advisor to J&K, member of the National Security Council’s Advisory Board, Prof Amitabh Mattoo is the only Padma Shri awardee currently on the rolls of JNU.  When he was appointed as Vice Chancellor in 2002, he was the youngest person appointed to a public university in the history of independent India. He earned his PhD from the University of Oxford and is known for his scholarship snd publications including the recently co-authored and critically acclaimed: “Strategic Choices & Ethical Dilemmas: Stories from the Mahabharat.”