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William J. Olson is a professor at the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. Recently, he was the President and CEO of Olson & Associates, a diversified consultancy providing a variety of services to corporate, government, and private sector clients. Most recently, he was the Chief of the Information Management Unit in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Baghdad, Iraq. He was formerly the Staff Director for the US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Before joining the Caucus, Dr. Olson was a Senior Fellow at the National Strategy Information Center. He has worked on intelligence reform, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, and on drug control issues, completing a study for the Heritage Foundation opposing drug legalization. He was also a participant in and contributor to working groups at CSIS and the Heritage Foundation on homeland security. Formerly, Dr. Olson was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Narcotics Matters at the Department of State. His duties included working on long-range planning and budgeting, program evaluation, strategic planning, intelligence liaison, law enforcement liaison, Congressional relations, and public affairs. He chaired various interagency panels to develop counter-narcotics strategies for heroin, source and transit countries, and the Andes. He co-chaired the INM-DEA oversight committee for Joint Information Collection Centers, with sites in the Caribbean and Latin America. Before joining the State Department, he was Director and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary (acting) for Low Intensity Conflict in the Department of Defense, where his office had primary oversight of LIC-related policy. Work included planning and policy development for peacekeeping operations, counter-insurgency, and counter narcotics. He also participated in the development of the President's National Strategy for LIC and the Andean Strategy on drug policy. He was a participant on the Secretary of Defense's Commission on Long-Range Strategy, and the Joint Service Secretaries' Study of OSD Reorganization. Before going to OSD, Dr. Olson was a senior analyst on Southwest Asia at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. He has served as a member of NSIC's Working Group on International Organized Crime, and the Consortium on Intelligence's Working Group on Intelligence Reform. He has been a consultant with US law enforcement, intelligence and national policy agencies, and has worked extensively on drug policy issues with key congressional committees. He is also on the board of the Caribbean Hospital Relief Fund, a private, non-profit organization that raises money and supplies to support hospitals in the Caribbean and Central America. His published works include over 50 articles and books on light forces, US strategic interests in the Persian Gulf, the Iran-Iraq war, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, guerrilla warfare, terrorism, the war on drugs, conflict management, and most recently on studies on international organized crime and homeland security.
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William J. Olson, Professor
"There is nothing which is not the subject of debate, and in which men of learning are not of contrary opinions. The most trivial question escapes not our controversy, and in the most momentous we are not able to give any certain decision. Disputes are multiplied, as if every thing was uncertain; and these disputes are managed with the greatest warmth, as if every thing was certain. Amidst all this bustle 'tis not reason, which carries the prize, but eloquence; and no man needs ever despair of gaining proselytes to the most extravagant hypothesis, who has art enough to represent it in any favourable colours. The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of the army." ~ David Hume
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