Description
The war between Russia and Ukraine, along with ongoing violence in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, raises questions about governing targeted territories after the end of war. A key approach currently under discussion is the temporary international administration of disputed areas. This model, last implemented in East Timor and Kosovo following the Cold War, represents one of the most comprehensive forms of international peacebuilding, blending peacekeeping and state-building policies to allow time for a sustainable resolution. This paper aims to historicise this maximal form of international governance by tracing a genealogy of international territorial administration and demonstrating its deep connection to decolonisation policies first introduced by the League of Nations after World War I and subsequently expanded by the United Nations. This genealogy reveals that international administrations, as well as comprehensive peacebuilding missions, have developed their policy instruments in part from the experiences of international decolonisation. The paper’s goal is to analyse the origins and evolution of external territorial administrations, with a particular focus on whether contemporary approaches to such governance reflect the original commitment to decolonisation.
