Building the Wrong Peace: Re-viewing the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor Through a Political Settlement Lens

This paper uses a political settlement lens to argue that the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which administered the territory from October 1999 through to its independence on 20 May 2002, largely fulfilled the elements of the security and governance mandate conferred on it by the United Nations Security Council but that this was not sufficient to create the conditions for lasting stability in East Timor. UNTAET succeeded in supporting the political and structural separation of the territory from Indonesia, in the process putting in place many of the elements of the machinery for the new state. However, it did not pay sufficient heed to the consequences of its decisions for the internal political settlement that was taking shape across Timors elites and the wider society. In order to examine the evolving political settlement over the life of UNTAET, this paper looks at three areas: the political space that opened up under UNTAET; the organisation of the transitional government; and the making of the Constitution for the future state of Timor-Leste