A survey of the historical and social evolution of international territorial administration shows that the exercise of territorial authority by international entities is mainly a twentieth-century phenomenon which gradually replaced previously established models of foreign state administration, such as protectorates, condominiums or regimes of belligerent occupation following territorial conquest. It covers cases of territorial administration in which international organisations exercise administering authority or control over territories, either directly or through international institutions acting on their behalf or with their approval.

International territorial administration shares conceptual parallels with three major techniques of the governance devices of the twentieth century: The Mandate System, the Trusteeship System and post-surrender occupation. It draws, in particular, upon the concept of fiduciary authority inherent in the Mandate and the UN Trusteeship System and the temporal limitations inherent in trusteeship occupation. Nonetheless, international territorial administration constitutes an independent governance technique, both in form and in substance.

International administration is, to some extent, a counter-model to the classic concept of occupation. It is not a state-centred form of administration which is triggered by factual events (i.e. the exercise of effective authority over territory), but an arranged form of authority that is carried out by or under the auspices of international actors.