Professor Anthony Crothers Milner AM

After completing his studies at Brighton Grammar, Professor Anthony Miller received BA Honours (Monash University): M.A.;PhD (Cornell University) and an Honorary Doctorate in the Humanities, University of Malaya (2017)

A distinguished Asia specialist, Tony is an historian with a particular focus on Malaysia, Indonesia and ASEAN. A media commentator on Australia-Asia issues, he has also been a leader in building dialogues with Asian countries. His publications include three sole-authored books on the history of ideas and political culture in the Malay world. He is also co-editor of the three-volume series, Australia in Asia (Oxford University Press).

In his writing and seminar initiatives, Tony has focused on the role that values and cultural perceptions play in Asian and Indo-Pacific regional relations. 

Before his appointments at ANU and the Academy of Social Sciences, Tony was a lecturer at Cornell University and then Head of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Kent, England. 

Tony’s other appointments include senior visiting posts at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the National University of Singapore (as Raffles Visiting Professor), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Kyoto University, Humboldt University, the National University of Malaysia (as Pok Rafeah Professor) and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia (as Tun Hussein Onn Chair). 

At the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Tony served as Research Chair and President of the ACT Branch – and was also made a National Life Member in 2008. At the Asian Studies Association of Australia, he was Editor of both the Asian Studies Review and the Southeast Asian Publication Series. He became Australian Co-Chair of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) in 2002 and was Non-ASEAN Co-Chair of the CSCAP organization in 2019-2021. At Asialink (University of Melbourne), Tony played a leading role in developing the Asialink Conversations, the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue and the annual Canberra Leadership Retreat. 

Tony was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences in 1995 and made Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2019.

Apart from serving for a decade on the Federal Government’s Foreign Affairs Council, his other government appointments include the Executive Council of the Australia-Thailand and the Executive Council of the Australia Malaysia Institute – and a Panel Member of the Australian Research Council.  He also served on the Council of the ANU.

Among his publications, Kerajaan: Malay Political on the Eve of Colonial Rule (1982), was selected by the American Council of Learned Societies as one of the 25 “works of major importance to historical studies” in the field of Southeast Asian history.

Tony was appointed a 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’. In 2017, he received the Merdeka Award (Malaysia) for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the People of Malaysia’.