This paper examines variation in internationalized territories, or cases in which multiple external actors cooperatively govern a territory in a manner which displaces the indigenous state.  In this paper, I argue that cases of internationalization are byproducts of the state system.  I first provide an original identification and synthesis of cases spanning from the Free City of Cracow (1815-1846) to the 1999 establishment of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.  I identify three distinct and historically-specific causal logics of internationalization, which I argue are associated with the transformation from a world of empires to a world of nation-states.  Problems of imperial expansion, imperial collapse, and imperial aftermath lead to variation in when, where, why, and how disputed territories are internationalized.  The variation in the causes of internationalization produces variation in the institutional form of these settlements, namely the intended duration of these arrangements and transformative mission pursued by the intervening parties.  My argument is supported by both a medium-n analysis of my complete universe of cases as well as detailed case studies of the Shanghai International Settlement (1868-1943), League of Nations administrations in Danzig and the Saar Basin (1920-1939/35), and the United Nations Transitional Administration in Cambodia (1992-1993).  Uniting these cases under a common definition reveals a previously unstudied form of international cooperation, relevant to the territorially-based crises of today’s international system.

Heather Penatzer is a Ph.D. candidate in Politics at Princeton University, where her research examines alternative configurations of authority and sovereignty in international politics.  Heather’s dissertation examines internationalized territories as zones of exception in the international system, with emphasis on the historical and theoretical abnormalities these cases present.  Her research contributes to the international relations literatures on international order, state-building, and interventions; historical research on legal sovereignty and imperial governance; and political theory literature on territory and resource sovereignty.  Prior to Princeton, Heather received an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, where her thesis examined the 2014 conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The 'DynamiTE lunchtime seminars' are a part of the project 'Dynamic Territory'. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 948964).