At the level of international and national discourse about East Timor, peace and independent statehood have been understood as inextricably entwined. This linkage is scarcely surprising, flowing as it does from the nature of the conflict in East Timor – an independence struggle against what was judged by the majority of the population to be a violent occupying force.¹ Under prevailing international and national conditions, independent statehood was the only pathway available to life without rule by violent others. Beyond the assertion of independent statehood, however, to take state-building as the pathway to peace also reflects the dominant international trends ordering peacebuilding interventions, discussed elsewhere in this volume.