The
Office of Insular Affairs (
OIA) is a unit of the
United States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United States possessions. It is the successor to the
Bureau of Insular Affairs of the
War Department, which administered certain territories from 1902 to 1939, and the
Office of Territorial Affairs (formerly the Division of Territories and Island Possessions and then the Office of Territories) in the Interior Department, which was responsible for certain territories from the 1930s to the 1990s. The word "insular" comes from the
Latin word
insula ("
island").