Final Status for Kosovo

TLDR: The legal structure of these political trusteeships has varied widely as discussed by the authors, and only in East Timor has the political trustee made a relatively clean exit from the U.N. trusteeship system.

Abstract: Transforming nondemocratic states is one of the great challenges of the twenty-first century. Since the official end of the U.N. trusteeship system and the subsequent end of the Cold War, the international community has intervened in Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq to set up "political trusteeships,"1 under which the international community exercises powers traditionally associated with sovereignty.2 The legal structure of these political trusteeships has varied widely. Only in East Timor has the political trustee made a relatively clean exit.