The Road to INTERFET: Bringing the Politics Back In

This article examines Australia's strategic policy during the 1999 East Timor crisis. Written as a stand-alone piece, it is in some ways a broad counter-point to the essay by Professor Hugh White in the Autumn 2008 issue of Security Challenges. 1 The author, who was Principal Analyst (East Timor) for the Australian Intelligence Corps in 1998 and 1999, argues that the Australian government was not ambivalent about a peacekeeping force; rather, it worked assiduously to prevent such a force. It demonstrates the need for strategic actors to incorporate the rough-and-tumble of domestic politics and public opinion into their sometimes bureaucratic, anaemic calculations.