The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006

22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 y the fourth anniversary of its statehood earlier this year, East Timor was com- monly referred to as one of the great successes of U.N. nationbuilding. When violence erupted after the country’s inde- pendence referendum in 1999, the U.N. Security Council handed Australia a robust mandate to restore peace. The presence of the Australians — exemplifying a “U.N.-plus-one” approach — and strong initial financial and political sup- port from the international community created the conditions in which to build a new, democratic state. F O C U S O N F R A G I L E S T A T E S S EEKING A P ATIENT P ATH TO N ATIONBUILDING U.N. POST - CONFLICT PLANNING SHOULD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE RESOURCES NEEDED TO SUSTAIN AND STABILIZE COUNTRIES LONG AFTER ELECTIONS . B Y R OBERT M C M AHON B Clemente Botelho