This study has as its focus the recent experience of peacekeeping and peacebuilding in East Timor and the Southwest Pacific. The general context is the trend towards the regionalization of such matters at a global level. In this case we have some specific situations within the same broad area of the world (extending from the eastern end of Southeast Asia into the adjoining parts of the Pacific islands region). An analysis of peacekeeping and peacebuilding in these situations can be useful in at least two respects. It is possible to observe the political dynamics underlying peacekeeping and peacebuilding in these situations with a view to seeing whether they are consistent with broader international trends. At the same time the experience in East Timor and the Southwest Pacific might provide insights that could be relevant in other contexts. Peacekeeping refers to international ‘intervention’ to restore security or to deal with a deteriorating security situation. Although intervention is sometimes defined narrowly to refer to the entry of external forces into such situations without the consent of the sovereign authority, here the term is used more broadly to denote such entry even when the de jure or de facto authority has given consent. Peacebuilding is the long-term process focusing on political, economic, and social development as a means of rebuilding societies and avoiding situations that jeopardize security, whether defined in terms of state security or human security more broadly.