Johan Galtung is widely known as the pioneering founder of the academic discipline of peace studies. He has served as a professor for peace studies and peace research at the universities of Oslo, Berlin, Belgrad, Paris and Hawaii, just to name a few, and has mediated in about 50 conflicts between states and nations since 1957.

Born 1930 in Oslo, Norway, Prof. Johan Galtung holds PhDs in mathematics and sociology. He currently lectures in a Masters Course at the World Peace Academy associated with the University of Basel and is director of the Transcend Peace University, the world's first online Peace Studies University and a global non-profit network Transcend International dedicated to high level mediation and conflict resolution through nonviolent means and methods. “Transcend International” connects about 400 experts active in concrete peace and reconciliation work across the globe.

Prof. Galtung's latest book is a provacative look at the US, its influence globally and its future. Even the title is controversial: The Fall of the US Empire–And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming?

Some fun Links about Johan Galtung:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung

http://www.transcend.org/

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/7/johan_galtung_on_the_fall_of

http://www.crosscurrents.org/galtung.htm

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johan-Galtung/52436451482