Damien Kingsbury witnessed the 1999 violence in East Timor as a UN observer, and uses the experience of being confronted with the Indonesian military’s campaign of violence there to introduce what is the most frank assessment of the Indonesian military we are likely to see outside of confidential intelligence reports. The fact that Kingsbury has experienced the fear the Indonesian military instils in places like Aceh and Ambon makes this analysis of the role of the military there so important. It is not so much the explicit writing of that experience, but the questions it makes him ask about the Indonesian military and the con-struct of the Indonesian state, that make this piece of academic writing stand out.