Abstract: Most work on international relations has tended to look at the policies and actions of governments. Yet cases like East Timor's international campaign for independence from Indonesia, waged from 1975 to 1999, highlight the crucial role played by non-state actors. This paper examines the diplomacy of the East Timorese struggle for self-determination, one of the three "fronts" (along with military and clandestine) established by the independence movement. It considers the appeals to the UN in the early years, the reliance in the dark years on a few Lusophone states, the re-organization of the movement under the umbrella of the National Council of Maubere Resistance, the birth of a solidarity movement in Europe, North America and Asia, the role of images and film clips reaching the outside world, and the UN mediation process that led to the agreement on a referendum in 1999.

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