In or out : sub-national island jurisdictions and the antechamber of para-diplomacy

Abstract

When East Timor achieved sovereignty on 20 May 2002, the ceremony marked not only the end of an agonizing process of self-determination for the islanders of this small territory, but also arguably the final act of European decolonization itself. Yet was East Timor truly the last scraping of the bottom of the colonial barrel? There are various types of dependencies scattered across the oceans of the world, many of them islands, still subject to European metropoles. The quest for sovereignty, as the only acceptable path to self-determination, does not seem to be the burning issue in these few remaining territories. Many are content to maintain the security of metropolitan relationships into the distant future.