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TheDepartment of Peace Studies is an academic department established in 1973 at theUniversity of Bradford inBradford,United Kingdom. It was the first peace studies department established in anyBritish university. As of 2018[update], it claimed to be the world's largest university research centre for thestudy of peace and conflict.[1][self-published source?] Activities of the centre include studies ofpeace processes, international relations, security studies, conflict resolution, development and teaching in these fields.[citation needed]
The idea for a School of Peace Studies dates back to 1964, two years before the establishment of the University of Bradford. When they were devising the charter of statutes, Ted Edwards and Robert McKinlay, the university's first vice-chancellor and pro-vice chancellor, agreed that they would establish such a school when the opportunity arose. Later in the 1960s, theSociety of Friends approached a number of universities with similar ideas, and Bradford proved to be the only one prepared to fund such an initiative. With 10 weeks of the launch of a public appeal in 1971, the required £75,000 to found the centre had been raised, with contributions coming from figures includingHarold Wilson,J.B. Priestley,Yehudi Menuhin andBenjamin Britten. The university matched the funding.[2]
The first cohort of Master's students joined the department in 1974.[3]
During the 1980s, someConservative Party politicians questioned whether peace studies was an appropriate academic subject and considered the Department of Peace Studies a front for theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament.Margaret Thatcher is reported to have asked Sir Keith Joseph, her Secretary of State for Education, "Has that peace studies problem been dealt with yet?"[4]Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, chair of theUniversity Grants Committee (UGC), was tasked with investigating the department. The UGC gave the department "a clean bill of health".[5]With thefall of the Berlin Wall and the amount of peace breaking out in the world, attitudes to the department changed.
The Tolstoy Cup is an annualfootball match played between the students of the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and theDepartment of War Studies atKing's College London since 1995. The rivalry between 'Peace Studies' and 'War Studies' was featured on theFinancial Times list of "Great college sports rivalries".[6] The competition is named afterWar and Peace, the 1869 novel written by the Russian authorLeo Tolstoy. The "trophy" is a framed copy of the book. It is kept by the department of the current winners.
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