In Memoriam: April 2026

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, an influential scholar of international diplomacy and founding director of Princeton’s Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, died Feb. 17 at age 70. Danspeckgruber, a member of the School of Public and International Affairs faculty for nearly four decades, mentored aspiring diplomats and drew on his experiences to lead campus discussions of current events, from the war in the Balkans in the 1990s through the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 2020s. Andrew Moravcsik, current director of the institute, said in a University obituary that Danspeckgruber Wolfgang Danspeckgruber“had a nose for hot emerging issues and the energy to get involved and up to speed fast, even in the most difficult environments.” He also brought prominent leaders to campus, teaching courses alongside former Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Durao Barroso and former German vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer.