ABSTRACT
The London Institute of World Affairs will be 50 years old in August 1984 and it is perhaps fitting to celebrate its golden anniversary by offering a brief historical review of its origins and development and of the contribution which it has made to the study of world affairs. The war years from 1940 to 1945 witnessed the formal transformation of the New Commonwealth Institute into the London Institute of World Affairs and a remarkably fruitful period of education and publishing in very difficult circumstances. By the end of the pre-war period a link had been forged between the Institute and the University of London which was later to develop into a two-year, full-time Diploma course organised by the Institute in association with the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University. The most remarkable feature of the pre-war period in the Institute's development was the very considerable growth in its research and publishing activities.
