Overview

The UN intervention in East Timor illustrates the type of complex operation that the United Nations increasingly being asked to undertake. Michael Smith analyzes the successes and failures of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which was designed to work in partnership with the East Timorese in guiding the country to independence following the 1999 vote to secede from Indonesia. This is an account of a UN mission in the unfamiliar role of interim government - a mission dealing with critical requirements for good governance, sustainable development, and effective military and police forces. Evaluating the lessons learned from the experience, he highlights the urgent need forreforms within the UN. The absence of those reforms, he believes,will lead to more failed states, more refugees, more poverty,and more dead peacekeepers.

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9781588261427

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Reviews

An important and serious study: balanced, critical, and extremely useful for the UN as it plans future missions elsewhere. - Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, East Timor; General Mike has highlighted the key issues which future peacekeeping forces will need to consider in their preparation and training for peacekeeping operations. His work is a most important contribution to our understanding of the special demands placed upon those entrusted with keeping the peace, and to their preparation for that role. - Lt. Gen. Peter Cosgrove

Author Information

Major General Michael G. Smith (recently retired from the Australian army after 34 years of distinguished service) was deputy force commander of the UNTAET peacekeeping force from January 2000 through March 2001. Moreen Dee is an independent scholar engaged in the study of diplomatic and military issues in southeast Asia.

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