Carlyle a. Thayer is Emeritus Professor, The University of New South Wales (UNSW) at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra. He was educated at Brown University (BA Political Science 1967) and after graduation served in South Vietnam with the International Voluntary Services (1967-68) and Botswana with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (1968-69). Thayer then earned an M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies from Yale University (1969-71) before taking up a Research Scholarship at the Australian National University (ANU) where he was awarded a PhD in International Relations in 1977. Thayer began his academic career as Lecturer at the Bendigo Institute of Technology/Bendigo College of Advanced Education in Victoria (1974-78). He then joined The University of New South Wales and taught first in its Faculty of Military Studies at The Royal Military College-Duntroon (1976-85). In 1985 he transferred to UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Thayer was seconded to the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific Studies at The Australian National University from 1992-94. Thayer returned to UNSW Canberra and served as Chair of the Department of Politics (1995-97). In 1999, Thayer was given “leave in the national interest” to take up a senior appointment at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii (1999-2002). On return to Australia he was seconded to Deakin University to serve as their academic coordinator for Australia’s senior defence course at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS) at the Australian Defence College (2002-04). In 2005, that was appointed the C. V. Starr Distinguished Visiting Professor in Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. He then served as Director for Regional Security Studies at the Australian Command and Staff College (2006-07 and 2010). In 2008, he was appointed the Frances M. and Stephen H. Fuller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. On retirement at the end of 2010 he was appointed UNSW Emeritus Professor. During his career, Thayer undertook sabbatical leave at the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre; Harvard’s Center for International Affairs; International Institute of Strategic Studies in London; Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore; and the Department of Political Science at Yale. Thayer was a founding member of the Vietnam Studies Association of Australia and served three terms as National Secretary/Treasurer (1994-98). He also served as National Secretary of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (1996-98). Currently he serves as Director of Thayer Consultancy, a small business registered in Australia in 2002 that provides political analysis of current regional security issues and other research support to selected clients. Thayer is a Southeast Asia regional specialist with special expertise on Vietnam and is the author of over 500 academic publications.
— Back