Interenclave

An interenclave is a term used in political geography to describe a territorial unit that itself is an enclave within another enclave. In practice, it denotes a nested enclave: a portion of land that is surrounded by, and part of, a larger enclave, which may belong to a different state than the surrounding area.

The concept arises from historical property arrangements and treaty boundaries that produce irregular patches of sovereignty. Interenclaves demonstrate how political borders can be layered and defy simple geometric description, making governance, taxation, and service provision more complex than in ordinary border regions.

A well-known real-world example is found in the Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog municipalities along the Belgium–Netherlands border, where Belgian enclaves lie within Dutch enclaves, and within some of those Dutch enclaves exist further Belgian enclaves. The result is a micro-jurisdictional mosaic with multiple layers of authority.

Legal and administrative realities include overlapping jurisdictions, different municipal regulations, and potential confusion for residents and visitors. Cross-border coordination, emergency services, and taxation can require special agreements or routine cooperation between neighboring authorities.

The term interenclave is not widely used in official treaties but appears in academic discussions of enclaves and border geography to describe nested arrangements. It sits alongside related concepts such as enclaves, exclaves, counter-enclaves, and perforated states.