ABSTRACT
The evolution of a structured network of scholarship is seldom random though in some circumstances it may be dependent upon chance encounter, but it is hugely significant in terms of how and why one set of assumptions gives rise to or challenges another. The community of scholars, identified by institutional affiliation and membership in organizations, permits, allows and stimulates productive intercourse and changes in discourse. In the period between the two World Wars the academic forerunners of Peace Research began the period of fertilization and early gestation. This process is associated with the work of Quincy Wright in the United States and Lewis Fry Richardson in Britain. Wright frequently makes reference to the works of Lewis Richardson in the statistical treatments in 'A Study of War', demonstrating both an intellectual debts and an affinity of concerns. Legislation was passed in 1979 to establish a Commission on Proposals for the National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution.
