Anthony Milner (historian)

Professor Anthony Milner is an Australian historian of Southeast Asia and a commentator on Australia-Asia relationships. Author of a much-cited work, Kerajaan, and a number of other books on Malay history and political culture, he is also editor of a series of volumes, Australia in Asia (see below). Currently, Anthony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at the Australian National University and Professorial Fellow at Asialink, The University of Melbourne. He was Dean of Asian Studies at the Australian National University (1996-2005).

Anthony Milner has been concerned with the historical and cultural processes that shape the Asian region, and influence Australia’s opportunities and security. He is described, sometimes critically, as adopting a post-modern approach. Milner has been a strong advocate of Track II diplomacy – arguing that the globalising and democratising of international relations demands an enhanced role for non-government interaction.

Milner has played a leading role in the development of the Australian-ASEAN dialogue, the ‘Asialink Conversations’, and in the establishment of an Australia-New Zealand dialogue with the influential network ASEAN-ISIS. While acknowledging the Howard Government‘s (1996-2008) practical achievements in Asia policy, Milner lamented its neglect of Asia education and the general ‘narrowing of cultural horizons on the part of the Australian community’.

Milner is Co-Chair of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific. He has also been Member at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton and Raffles Visiting Professor of History at the National University of Singapore. He was Director of the Australia-Asia Perceptions Project of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He has been a member of the Australian Government’s Foreign Affairs Council since 1998 and was a member of the Founding Committees of the Government’s Australia-Malaysia Institute and Australia-Thailand Institute.

Milner received his B.A from Monash University and Ph.D. from Cornell University under John Legge and Oliver Wolters. He also worked with the leading international cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz.

Awards

Awarded Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for “service to education in the field of Asian studies as an academic and author, and to international relations through the development of cross-cultural education and outreach activities”. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1995.

Key Publications

• Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule (American Association of Asian Studies Monograph, 1982; Thai translation, 2008) - selected as one of the 25 “works of major importance to historical studies” in Southeast Asian history by the Association for Asian Studies in the USA on behalf of the American Council of Learned Societies. ISBN 0816507724. National Library of Australia catalogue
• (With Hooker, V.), Perceptions of the Haj, (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984). ISBN 9971902834. National Library of Australia catalogue
• Ed, with Marr, D. Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries, (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1986). ISBN 9971988402. National Library of Australia catalogue
• Ed, with Herbert, P., South-East Asia: Languages and Literature, A select guide, (Whiting Bay, Kiscadale, 1988; Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1989). ISBN 1870838106. National Library of Australia catalogue
• (Editor, with Gerstle, D.), Recovering the Orient: Artists, Scholars, Appropriations, (London, Harwood Press, 1994). ISBN 3718656876. National Library of Australia catalogue
• The Invention of Politics: Expanding the Public Sphere in Colonial Malaya, (Cambridge, New York and Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1995, 2002). ISBN 0521465656. National Library of Australia catalogue and N2000971
• (Ed, with Quilty, M.), Australia in Asia (3 Vols), (Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1996-2000). ISBN 019553672X. National Library of Australia catalogue, 1764159 and 1194330
• Region, Security and the Return of History, (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003, p1-59). ISBN 9812302212. National Library of Australia catalogue
• The Malays, (Oxford, Blackwell, 2008). ISBN 9780631172222. National Library of Australia catalogue
• Asia-Australia (history), in Galligan, B. & Roberts, W. (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2007, p43-45. ISBN 9780195555431. National Library of Australia catalogue
• (Ed), Positioning Australia in the Region and on the Global Map, Report of the First Annual Future Summit, 6-8 May 2004, Melbourne, Australian Davos Connection, 2004, p86-96.
• Balancing ‘Asia’ Against Australian Values, in Cotton, J & Ravenhill, J. (eds), The National Interest in A Global Era: Australia in World Affairs 1996-2000, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2001, p31-50. ISBN 0195515250. National Library of Australia catalogue
• What Happened to ‘Asian Values’?, in Segal, G. & Goodman, D. (eds), Towards Recovery in Pacific Asia, London, Routledge, 2000, p55-68. ISBN 0415223539. National Library of Australia catalogue

External links

• The Australian National University
• The University of Melbourne
• Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific
• Australia Member Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacificc
• Asialink
• Australia-Malaysia Institute
• Australia-Thailand Institute