Olle Törnquist is a global historian and social scientist of Scandinavian roots, born, living and now also working in the northwestern Swedish archipelago. He was educated at the universities of Gothenburg and Uppsala (PhD 1983) and is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Development Research at the University of Oslo. His focus for the last half a century has been the rise and decline of the second (anti-colonial) and third (liberal and civic) waves of democracy, along with efforts at rights-based development.