The program succeeded magnificently. By means of these inducements it attracted many of the best young minds to the new field of development studies. By the end of the 1960s. such academic professional associations as the African studies Association, Asian Studies Association, and Latin American Studies Association were as big as or bigger than the more established European Studies Association. From this point on, the study of the developing nations would emerge as one of, if not the, major focuses of the social sciences.