International Statebuilding in Timor-Leste: Modernity, Tradition, and Post-coloniality

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H06616
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: International relations
• Research Institution: Daito Bunka University
• Principal Investigator: Inoue Hiroko 大東文化大学, 法学部, 講師 (20758479)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-08-28 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 国家構築 / 平和構築 / ポストコロニアリティ / 近代 / 伝統 / 政治文化 / 法文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research was intended to better understand the course of international state-building in Timor-Leste, particularly focusing on the friction between international' cultures of governance which underlie the newly implemented modern-state institutions, and local cultures of governance which had been forged through the country's history. This study has critically examined the conventional methodology which has widely been used in studies of international state-building, and proposed an alternative methodology to better understand state-building in Timor-Leste. Based on this original methodology, the study has identified the way in which newly implemented state-institutions are repeatedly interpreted and practiced in accordance with local cultures of governance. Moreover, this study has shown that the discourse of culture and tradition often serves as a lens for the local people to see liberal-democratic norms and institutions as 'foreign' and reject their legitimacy.

Free Research Field

国際関係論