[Easttimorstudies] 3 recent academic articles that may be of interest

[Jennifer Drysdale]

Security sector reform in East Timor, 1999–2004

Ludovic Hood

Abstract:

The UN's ground-breaking peace operation in East 
Timor achieved many successes, surmounting a 
major humanitarian crisis and laying basic 
foundations for the future state's governance 
institutions. However, in the critical areas of 
police and military reform, the UN failed to 
exploit its unprecedented civil authority and 
relatively benign operating environment. Poor 
leadership, negligible planning and altogether 
unqualified UN police contingents produced 
security services devoid of adequate 
institutional development and woefully lacking in 
any democratic oversight. As a result, the young 
nation's fragile democracy may be at risk from 
security forces accountable to no one, bar a 
handful of powerful political leaders.

   Journal: International Peacekeeping
   Publisher:  Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
   Issue:  Volume 13, Number 1 / March 2006
   Special Issue: Security Sector Reconstruction 
and Reform in Peace Support Operations

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Truth and reconciliation? The experience of Truth Commissions1

Beth Rushton

A1

Abstract:

Do truth commissions achieve truth? Do they 
achieve reconciliation? This article will 
consider these two questions in turn. I argue 
that truth commissions have failed to discern and 
report accurate and complete records of past 
atrocities, but they are socially and politically 
purposive. To reach this conclusion requires 
examining some theoretical concerns about the 
nature of truth and consideration of the accuracy 
and completeness of commissions’ reports. I argue 
that truth commissions do not achieve 
reconciliation, but they can catalyse it. I 
develop this argument through examining meanings 
of reconciliation, its (contested) relationship 
with truth and issues that complicate and advance 
its achievement. In this article I differentiate 
between truth as a product­a commission's 
report­and truth seeking as a process. I examine 
the contribution of both product and process to 
the achievement of truth and reconciliation.

Australian Journal of International Affairs
   Publisher:  Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
   Issue:  Volume 60, Number 1 / March 2006
   Pages:  125 - 141

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East Timor's double life: Smells like Westphalian spirit

Simon Philpott A1

Abstract:

While East Timor may have been the last nation to 
emerge out of the turbulent 20th century, its 
passage to nationhood was as protracted, painful 
and violent as that of many of its predecessors. 
With it regarded by the majority of international 
opinion as too small, too weak and lacking in 
economic viability to establish itself as a 
nation-state at the time of Portuguese 
decolonisation, East Timorese aspirations for 
statehood were all but ignored in 1974 – 75, 
while the Indonesian government received covert 
support from the USA and Australia for its 
invasion and occupation of the Portuguese colony. 
However, in the aftermath of the Santa Cruz 
massacre of 1991, neither Indonesia nor its 
allies could convincingly deny the legitimacy of 
East Timorese demands for independence in a world 
of sharply reduced cold war tensions and 
reinvested in the merits of democratic 
sovereignty. This article examines the 
circumstances of East Timor's invasion, 
indigenous discourses of identity and resistance, 
and the role played by the UN in steering East 
Timor from military occupation to independence.

Third World Quarterly
   Publisher:  Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
   Issue:  Volume 27, Number 1 / February 2006
   Pages:  135 - 159

    Special Issue: From Nation-Building To State-Building