Carl Thayer

A renowned scholar in international relations and defence security. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Australia-Vietnam Leaders Dialogue (formerly the Australia-Vietnam Young Leaders Dialogue). He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Canberra.

"My role as an academic was to inform Australians – government officials, Australian Defence Force personnel, academics, think tanks, special interest groups and the media – about Vietnam. At the same time, my role included informing Vietnamese – government officials, members of the Vietnam People’s Army, academics, researchers and the media – about Australia."

There have not been many foreign companions of Vietnam who showed interest in studying the country as early and as thoroughly as Carlyle A. Thayer.

In 1967, after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences from Brown University (US), he worked in Vietnam as a volunteer English teacher. He then earned a Master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies from Yale University and a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University with his thesis on Vietnam’s Workers’ Party (later renamed the Communist Party of Vietnam).

Professor Carlyle is a living witness to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam. He said: After the Paris Peace Accords was signed, the Australian government in February 1973 recognised the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (later became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam). At that time, he was a member of the Australia-Vietnam Society (AVS). In that capacity, he joined other members at the Canberra Airport to welcome the first diplomatic delegation from Vietnam, led by Nguyen Dy Nien, to Australia.

In 1981, Professor Carlyle visited a reunified Vietnam for the first time as a member of a four-person Australian academic delegation.

With such a special historical role and expertise alongside independent and objective research thinking, Professor Carlyle became a trusted scholar and sought-after advisor in both Vietnam and Australia in politics and defence-security, throughout different periods and eras.

Professor Carlyle said that he had the honour of being invited to submit ideas for the draft speech by former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-la Dialogue, in Singapore in 2013. He also was surprised and pleased that the Prime Minister of Vietnam included his suggestion to mention for the first time Vietnam’s commitment to UN peacekeeping/.

He also supervised numerous doctoral dissertations by Vietnamese students studying abroad in Australia. Many of them later became diplomats or important members of the Vietnamese government.

One thing Professor Carlyle takes pride in is that since his retirement in 2010, he was interviewed by many international and Vietnamese media outlets. There have been more than 3,300 written articles/interviews conducted for his perspectives and opinions on Vietnam as well as issues related to international relations, defence-security and cooperation opportunities.

Professor Carlyle added he regularly writes the periodic Vietnam Report which many subscribed to, including the Australian Embassy in Vietnam.

Describing the progress of Vietnam-Australia diplomatic relations, Professor Carlyle believed that the two countries have gone through three periods of development. The first period began in 1973 when they established their diplomatic relations. The second period was from 1991 to 2000, which was also known as the normalisation period. The third period continues to this day, which he refers to as the period of “institutionalisation” when the two countries upgrade their relations to a comprehensive, then strategic partnership.