This book is based on extensive research and regaulr visits to East Timor since 1995. It considers the trials that the people of East Timor have undergone in their long struggle for independence, and issues that have arisen out of independence. This account places East Timor within the context of other post-colonial states, noting the problems that most of them have faced in coming to grips with their new-found freedoms, and how they have managed, or mismanaged, such freedoms. It also traces the themes and issues within the independence movement, noting how these have contibuted to post-independence outcomes, in particular the poltiical tensions that almost saw East Timor collapse as a viable state in 2006. The books concludes with an assessment of the 2007 elections which, depsite some post-election violence, saw the consolidation of democratic processes in East Timor, and which marked it as having a brighter future in this one critical respect.
History
Pagination
1 - 246
Publisher
Palgrave-Macmillan
Place of publication
New York, N.Y.
ISBN-13
9780230606418
ISBN-10
0230606415
Language
eng
Notes
Contents : Notes on Nomenclature and Spelling -- 1. Conceptual Considerations -- 2. Distant and Regional Colonialism -- 3. Critical Issues in the Independence Struggle -- 4. The UN's Benign Colonialism -- 5. Transition to Independence -- 6. Capacity and Conflict -- 7. The 2007 Elections -- 8. Democratic Consolidation, or a Failed State?