Leif Thomas Olsen

Bio

Thomas Olsen (for web-search, type ‘Leif Thomas Olsen’), is an Associate Rushmore Professor, International Relations (http://rushmore.edu/Faculty). Formerly a Management and Training Consultant, he turned to research on cross-cultural interaction following a five-year stint in the bi- and multilateral aid industry (including World Bank). His particular research-focus was initially Cultures’ Influences on Multilateral Co-operation, but has over the years moved in the direction of Governance and Glocalism.

His research and dissertation project, also published under the title ‘Traffic – A Book About Culture’, draws not only on scholarly work per se, but also on twenty-five years of professional experience, across a range of countries (from Sweden, England and USA to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam), as a controller, corporate manager, manager-for-hire and management consultant.

A Swede by birth, and partly raised in Africa, Thomas is based in South East Asia since 1993.

P2P Research Summary

His underlying assumption is that just as active mediation is a deliberate action in time of crises and conflicts, is due respect for each others' values and culturally driven premises a conscious attitude that can help avoid the emergence of these crises and conflicts in the first place. From this derives that governance in a globalised world must be culturally attuned to the society it is sup-posed to govern. This means that global governance-models are doomed to fail, whereby glocal governance models needs to be developed to meet the need of post-modern societies.

With the interactive web has the Commons – and/or what Habermas called the Public Sphere – finally a vehicle allowing them to challenge the corporate sector’s well funded lobby groups in terms of access to the governing process, something the electorate till now only had during election campaigns. His critical and partly satirical book on Good Governance, published in 2010, can be reviewed at http://goodgovernancebook.com.

More Information

Leif Thomas Olsen Associate Professor, International Relations

• Listed in the Association of Peer to Peer Researchers

• Contact via

1. E-mail: [email protected]
2. Site: http://rushmore.edu/Faculty
3. Site: http://goodgovernancebook.com.