Studying the Americas at the School of International Studies: From Campus to Corridors of Policy

This article focuses on the developments and shifts in the study of the Americas at the School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). It traces the growth of Area Studies at JNU since India’s independence, when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to engage with the world while remaining autonomous. The Centre for the Study of the Americas at SIS has achieved this by creating a unique Indian academic tradition of studying the Americas through the lens of India’s national interest. It has provided generations of academics, policymakers and diplomats with an understanding of the region that has arguably been used to move from a position of distance during the Cold War to that of strategic partnership. The Centre, since its birth as a part of the Indian School of International Studies in the 1950s, has emerged as an institutional force in promoting sustainable academic relations between India and the Americas.