ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the term peace studies to cover all academic activities, including research and teaching, relating directly to the study of how to avert the threat of war and achieve a peaceful world. The first peace research institute to be created m the UK was at the University of Lancaster in 1959. One of its founding members was Paul Smoker, who was also an active member of Lancaster's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The institute became known as the Richardson Institute, honouring the memory of the Quaker scientist Lewis Richardson who was one of the early pioneers from before the Second World War in the UK who devoted his intellect to the dilemma of how to avert the incidence of war. Like the better-known Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO), established by Johan Galtung in that same year of 1959.
