Milton Osborne is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, and consultant

Consultant

A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...

 specializing in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

.

He attended North Sydney Boys High School, graduated from the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 and received a Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. Osborne held academic positions in Australia, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. Osborne's main historical contribution has been to synthesise the history of the region as a whole, rather than concentrate on the histories of the present-day nations.

His Southeast Asia association began in 1959 with an Australian diplomatic posting to Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...

. In 1980 and 1981 Osborne advised the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...

 on the Cambodian refugee problem. In 1982 he returned to Australia, working as Head of the Asia Branch of the Office of National Assessments

Office of National Assessments

The Office of National Assessments is an Australian intelligence agency. ONA was established by the Office of National Assessments Act 1977 as an independent body directly accountable to the Prime Minister of Australia...

, also serving for a year as Head of Current Intelligence.

Osborne now lives in Sydney and continues to write while consulting on Asian issues.

Books

• Singapore and Malaysia (1964)
• Strategic Hamlets in South Viet-Nam: A Survey and a Comparison (1965)
• The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859-1905) (1969, reprinted 1997)
• Region of Revolt: Focus on Southeast Asia (1970)
• Politics and Power in Cambodia: The Sihanouk Years (Longman, 1973)
• River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 1866-1873 (London and New York, 1975)
• Southeast Asia: An Introductory History (eight editions, 1979 to 2000)
• Before Kampuchea: Preludes to Tragedy (1979)
• Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness (1994)
• River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73 (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999) ISBN 0-87113-752-6
• The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, Allen & Unwin, Sydney (2000), ISBN 1-86508-219-8

Articles

• "Francis Garnier (1839-1873), Explorer of the Mekong River", Explorers of South-east Asia, Six Lives, ed. Victor T. King, (Kuala Lumpur: OUP, 1995)
• River at risk: the Mekong and the water politics of China and Southeast Asia

External links

• May 2000 interview with Milton Osborne
• The Mekong River (August 2000 interview given to the ABC)