Inadequate peace research support

In its first phase, in the 1960s, peace research was concerned primarily with the formulation of theories regarding strategic disarmament and security politics, and introduced the criticism of the international threat and deterrent system. This criticism met with little response even from the critical public, and was given virtually no practical support from any section of any democratic society. Also without consequence in this early phase were peace researchers' suggestions about conflict regulation. Presently, researchers are looking at armament complexes as parts of larger social structures. There is also a negative concept interpreted as the absence of personal violence, and a positive concept of peace, to be interpreted as social justice: equal distribution of power and resources as well as absence of structural violence.

Peace research as a branch of political science has gained ground because the growing variety and number of conflicts could not be analyzed in a sufficient way - in contrast with former expectations.