International Engagement in War-Torn Countries‪.‬

How should we understand the international administration of war-torn territories? A couple of caveats are necessary at the outset. I shall not deal with practical issues involved in making international administrations effective or successful; that will be left to the experts. Nor can I deal with what might be termed the pragmata of such administrations--that is, the degree to which there is evidence of an ad hoc, case-by-case approach on the ground in war-torn countries. I suspect that the closer one gets the more particular each case becomes. I must leave that close scrutiny to others who are more intimately familiar with each case than I am. (1) Instead, I address the question from a broader perspective of international political theory. My concern is to render such international activity intelligible in terms of leading ideas of international society, by which I mean that I shall try to interpret it. (2) Interpretation involves construing an activity, elucidating it, hopefully explaining it, but at least reading it correctly and thus understanding its meaning in the historical context in which it takes place. (3) The key words of this special issue express important ideas that invite interpretation: international, administration, war-torn, and territories. What do these terms imply or intimate concerning the international activity under discussion? How does the thinking involved in this sort of international activity fit into our received thought on international society? Does it suggest any change in our post-1945 conception of international society? I focus my remarks on a basic issue: the business of acquiring, exercising, and relinquishing international authority over such places--that is, international engagement in war-torn countries. The postwar cases of Germany (4) and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be examined briefly. In short, I shall be surveying these cases in broad outline from a high altitude, from which some details will be overlooked, but I hope that the broad contours will be clear.