Robert Wylie

Dr. Robert Wylie serves as an Honorary Lecturer in the School of Business at UNSW Canberra, part of the University of New South Wales. With over 25 years of experience as a policy advisor in the Australian Public Service, primarily within the Department of Defence, as well as the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Treasury, Wylie brings extensive practical expertise to his academic role. Following his public service career, which ended in 2000, he worked at an economic consulting firm, focusing on the economics of Australian industry's involvement in supplying and supporting defence capabilities. He joined the School of Business in 2007, where his research examines public policy analysis, particularly defence policy impacting Australian industry and civil infrastructure.

Wylie's academic pursuits include a PhD at UNSW, titled "The choices Australia makes in supplying and supporting the military platforms and systems it procures in pursuit of its strategic objectives," under the supervision of Emeritus Professor Peter Hall and Associate Professor Stefan Markowski. His research interests focus on how Australia, as a small open trading economy, balances indigenous development with overseas procurement to meet strategic materiel needs. Wylie has made significant contributions to the field through his co-editorship of the influential book Defence Procurement and Industry Policy: A Small Country Perspective (Routledge, 2009), alongside Stefan Markowski and Peter Hall. In this volume, he authored or co-authored numerous chapters, covering topics such as procurement frameworks, buyer-seller interactions, government policy, Australian naval shipbuilding case studies, and the defence value-adding chain. Notable journal publications include "The AUKUS agreement: a new form of the plurilateral defence alliance? A view from downunder" (Defense and Security Analysis, 2024, with Stefan Markowski), "Economic Growth and Demand for Military Expenditure in the Indo-Pacific Asia Region" (Defence and Peace Economics, 2017, with Stefan Markowski and Satish Chand), "Isolation and technological innovation" (Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2014), and earlier works like "Defence Industry Policy 2010: The Combet Iteration" (Security Challenges, 2010). His scholarship addresses defence procurement strategies, industry policy, and technological innovation in the context of small nations' security needs.

Professional Email: r.wylie@unsw.edu.au