The book Everyday Diplomats: The Global Solidarity Movement for Timor-Leste, 1975-99 will be launched on Friday the 18th of July, 15:00-16:00, in the Arquivo & Museu da Resistência Timorense auditorium in Dili, Timor-Leste. This important book, co-edited by members and friends of AIA-SEAS, and with chapters by other members, can be read on Open Access at the following link: https://pressbooks.pub/everydaydiplomats/.
The book presents several of the solidarity movements for Timor-Leste, without which the diplomatic struggle for freedom and the restoration of independence would have been even more difficult. In telling the story of these different solidarity movements, the editors divide the activists’ initiatives into two categories: the first focusing on the countries of these activists and their efforts to change their countries’ policies by exposing the case of Timor-Leste and its links to the oppressive regime; and secondly, those working in the field of international relations and seeking substantial changes in countries and multilateral organisations. Everyday Diplomats: The Global Solidarity Movement for Timor-Leste, 1975-99 emphasises the importance of non-governmental movements in the world of diplomacy, reinforcing the potential of their impact.
This book emerged from the international workshop Solidarity with Timor-Leste’s struggle for self-determination: actors, institutions, contexts, held in Lisbon from 16-20 May 2022, as part of the project The Self-determination of Timor-Leste: Transnational Perspectives, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal (FCT/PTDC/HAR-HIS/30670/2017).
This is an important book for anyone who wants to know and understand Timor-Leste’s history better.
[News article corrected on the 14th of July: on the 12th July some of the book authors gathered at Centro Nacional Chega! to sign copies and begin dissemination of the book.]