Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement

The Origins of America’s Debate on East Timor

Shane Gunderson

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9798216312390
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement: The Origins of America's Debate on East Timor examines the campaigns by people in the United States on behalf of those seeking peace for East Timor. The diplomatic work of voluntary advisors and supporters living in the United States in the early years of the movement have not been thoroughly explored until now. Through in-depth interviews with twenty activists and intellectuals involved in the East Timor movement from 1975-1999 and qualitative data analysis on information obtained from these interviews, this book explores "momentum" and "turning points" as perceptions in the minds of individual movement actors. The author takes readers through a combination of historical events that shaped social movement actors' attitudes and started a social movement momentum sequence in 1995. The East Timor All Inclusive Dialogue, the Timorization of Indonesia, the public outcries, organizational evolution, and a number of other turning points in the movement represented a series of successes that led to East Timor's independence.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Rationality of Social Movement Momentum
• 2 Broken Promises of Non-Interference in East Timor
• 3 The East Timor Debate Comes to Cornell
• 4 U.S. Campaigns of the East Timor Independence Movement
• 5 Turning Points, 1980–1992
• 6 The Campaign of 1993–1994
• 7 Intra-East Timorese Dialogue Campaign, 1995–1996
• 8 Turning Points, 1996–1998
• 9 Turning Points, 1999
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author