Nirvikar Jassal follows in his father’s footsteps as a Salzburg Global Fellow... over 30 years later
Nirvikar Jassal came to Salzburg in September 2023 to attend the American Studies program. However, it was not his first time walking the halls of Schloss Leopoldskron. The last time was in 1992 when his father showed their family the place that had been transformative in his work as a diplomat.
Nirvikar’s father, Raminder Jassal, served as India’s ambassador to Turkey, Israel, and the United States. Raminder was a Salzburg Global Fellow who joined the American Studies program in 1988 where the discussion focused on “American Politics and the Foreign Policy Process”.
Now a Fellow himself, Nirvikar described his experience attending the American Studies program as “deeply meaningful”. He further explained, “My father was 36 when he participated here, and I am now 35. It's inspiring to be walking the same halls and having dinner in the Marble Hall. In a way, it resonates from a personal aspect, but it also shows you the continuity and the importance of Salzburg [Global] Seminar as an institution that has been around for decades.”
Reflecting on how Salzburg Global impacted his father’s career, Nirvikar noted that, “The people that he met here were inspiring to him...Everything my father told me about [Salzburg Global] Seminar since I was a child, including memories of individuals he met here in the 1980s, influenced my decision to attend in 2023.”
Recalling his father’s experience attending the 1988 American Studies program, Nirvikar reflected that, at the end of the 1980s, “a lot of change was taking place. American foreign policy was evolving [and] the end of the Cold War was beginning. For an Indian diplomat, it was a momentous time because for many years, India and the United States had a challenging relationship. But my father was part of the generation of diplomats who were beginning to see a little bit further along the horizon. When he came here [to Salzburg], the way American foreign policy intellectuals were thinking about India got him excited about the new potential for India-US relations. Salzburg [Global] Seminar was a milestone in his career because it helped him think outside the box about American foreign policy, as well as the emerging opportunities between the US and India taking shape that may not have been readily apparent whilst sitting in a government office building in Delhi. His experience here was one of several touchstones in a career that included the drafting and signing of the landmark civilian India-US Civilian Nuclear agreement with President George Bush in 2006.”
As a professor of political science at the London School of Economics (LSE), Nirvikar’s work focuses on crime and criminal justice in India, and a recent study of his, published in the American Political Science Review, explores the structural disadvantages that women face in their attempts to seek help from the state.
Despite Nirvikar being an empirical social scientist and his father a diplomat, both felt at home amongst the policy and intellectual community at Salzburg Global. “Salzburg Global’s impact can not only be measured in terms of the 40,000 people that have participated in programs at the Schloss since 1947, but also generationally vis-à-vis the people that those participants met, as well as their own children,” he added.
Nirvikar Jassal is an assistant professor of political science at the London School of Economics. He specializes in policing, crime, and criminal justice with a regional focus on South Asia. He attended the Salzburg Global American Studies program on “Beyond the Nation-State? Borders, Boundaries, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism” from September 19-23, 2023. The 2023 Salzburg Global American Studies Program focused on the contestations and renegotiations of boundaries beyond the nation-state, and how they are changing the representation of democratic pluralism.
Raminder Jassal participated in the Salzburg Global American Studies program on “American Politics and the Foreign Policy Process” from July 31 to August 13, 1988, where the faculty were Elliot Richardson, I.M. Destler, Marvin Kalb, and Norman Ornstein.
