Through its transitional administration in East Timor, the United Nations is exercising sovereign control over a new nation for the first time in its history. Such social and territorial control is an increasing trend in international interventions and aims to remedy the breakdown of failed states, to combat warring factions, and to topple abusive warlords. But this control could evolve into another form of authoritarianism unless the transitional administrators themselves separate power structures and become accountable to the local population. The author argues that the UN has so far failed to achieve this, and gives reasons why this is so.