Protecting power

Between 1961 and 2015, Switzerland was the protecting power of the United States in Cuba. The United States Interests Section in Havana, although it was staffed by personnel of the United States Foreign Service, was formally a section of the Embassy of Switzerland.^[1]

A protecting power is a state which somehow protects another state, and/or represents the interests of the protected state's citizens in a third state.

In diplomatic usage, "protecting power" refers to a relationship that may occur when two sovereign states do not have diplomatic relations. Either country may request a third party, with whom both countries have diplomatic relations, to use its "good offices" and act on its behalf as the protecting power.^[2]

In the host country, the protecting power is empowered to represent the property and interests of the protected country. This may extend to caring for the diplomatic property of its protectee or acting as consular officers on behalf of its citizens. If the two countries are at war, the protecting power will also inquire into the welfare of prisoners of war.

The role of "protecting power" originally developed in time of war and is formalized in the Geneva Conventions. Diplomatic relations are automatically broken when war is declared, making it necessary to appoint protecting powers. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations also provide for a similar status in time of peace, although they do not use the "protecting power" terminology.^[3]

Diplomacy

Between 1991 and 2015, the Swiss Embassy in Washington DC also officially represented Cuba's interests in the United States.^[1]

President Obama thanks the Swiss government for assistance in Iran (2016)

The protecting power is appointed by the protected state and must also be acceptable to the host state. It must therefore maintain diplomatic relations with both states. In time of war, the Geneva Conventions also require that the protecting power be a neutral country. The specific responsibilities and arrangements are agreed between the protecting power, the protected power, and the host country.

In a comprehensive mandate, the protecting power carries out most functions on behalf of the protected state. This is necessary when relations are so tense or hostile that the sparring nations have no diplomatic or consular staff posted on each other's territory. For example, Sweden carries out limited consular functions for the United States, Canada, and Australia in North Korea.

In other cases, the two nations have broken diplomatic relations, but are willing to exchange personnel on an informal basis. The protecting power serves as the mechanism for facilitating this exchange. The original embassy remains staffed by nationals of the protected state but is formally termed an "interests section" of the protecting power. For example, the Cuban Interests Section was staffed by Cubans and occupied the old Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., but it was formally a section of the Swiss Embassy to the United States.

History

The protecting power relationship originated in the Franco-Prussian War, when the belligerents expelled each other's diplomats and placed restrictions on enemy aliens. This made it necessary for belligerents to appoint protecting powers to represent their citizens' interests in enemy countries.^[4]

The practice became customary in international law but was not formalized until the Geneva Convention of 1929. The lack of formalization forced arrangements to be worked out on a case-by-case basis. During the Second Boer War, the British Empire selected the United States to be its protecting power in the Boer Republics, but the Boers refused to accept this status or to appoint a protecting power of their own. However, the Boers did allow the United States to look after the interests of British and Boer prisoners of war.^[4]

There is no requirement that the same protecting power be selected by both countries, although this is convenient for the purposes of communication. Each may select its own protecting power, provided that the choice is acceptable to the other state. There is also no requirement that a country select only one protecting power in the receiving country. During the Second World War, Japan appointed Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to be its protecting powers in the United States.^[4]

Second World War

During the Second World War, Axis-leaning Spain and the Nazi-occupied Netherlands were unable to serve the role of protecting power that they had served in the First World War. As a result, Switzerland and Sweden became the most popular choices for protecting power. Switzerland formally undertook 219 mandates for 35 states, and represented another eight states unofficially, while Sweden accepted 114 mandates for 28 states.^[5] Switzerland and Sweden both chose to remain non-aligned in the Cold War and refused to join any military alliances, leading to their continued popularity as protecting powers.

Current relationships

Protected state	Protecting power	Receiving state	Mandate	Notes
United States	Czech Republic	Syria	N/A	[3]
Australia	Hungary			[6]
Canada				[7]
	Italy	Iran	Comprehensive	[8]
Iran	Oman	Canada
	Pakistan	United States	N/A	See also: Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States[9]
Australia	Sweden	North Korea	Comprehensive	[10]
Canada
United States				[3][10]
Georgia	Switzerland	Russia	Interests section	[11]
Iran		Egypt		[12]
		Saudi Arabia		[13]
Russia		Georgia	Interests section	[12][14]
Saudi Arabia		Iran		[13]
United States			Comprehensive, with an interests section	[3][12]

Past relationships

Before the Second World War

Year begun	Year ended	Protected state	Protecting power	Receiving state	Cause of breach	Notes
1870	1871	France	United Kingdom	Germany	Franco-Prussian War	[4]
		Baden	Switzerland	France		[12]
		Bavaria
		Germany	Russia			[4]
			United States
1894	1895	China		Japan	First Sino-Japanese War
		Japan		China
1897		Ottoman Empire	Germany	Greece	Greco-Turkish War (1897)
		Greece	United Kingdom	Ottoman Empire
			France
			Russia
1898		United States	United Kingdom	Spain	Spanish–American War
		Spain	Austria-Hungary	United States
			France
		United States	United Kingdom	Spain
1904	1905	Russia	France	Japan	Russo-Japanese War	[15]
		Japan	United States	Russia
1911	1912	Italy	Germany	Ottoman Empire	Italo-Turkish War	[4]
		Ottoman Empire		Italy
1912	1913	Montenegro	France		Balkan Wars
			Russia
1918	1924	United Kingdom	Netherlands	Soviet Union	Bolshevik Revolution	[16]
1929		China	Germany		Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)	[4]
		Soviet Union		China

Since the Second World War

Year begun	Year ended	Protected state	Protecting power	Receiving state	Cause of breach	Notes
1961	2015	United States	Switzerland	Cuba	Cuban Revolution	See United States Interests Section in Havana.[3][12][1]
1975	1999	Portugal	Netherlands	Indonesia	Indonesian invasion of East Timor	[17]
		Indonesia	Thailand	Portugal
1976	1977	United Kingdom	France	Uganda	N/A	[18]
1979	N/A		Sweden	Iran	Iranian Revolution	N/A
1980	1988	Canada	Netherlands		Canadian Caper
1982	1990	Argentina	Brazil	United Kingdom	Falklands War	[19]
		United Kingdom	Switzerland	Argentina
1984	N/A		Italy	Libya	Murder of Yvonne Fletcher	[20]
		Libya	Saudi Arabia	United Kingdom		[21]
1989		United Kingdom	Sweden	Iran	Salman Rushdie affair	N/A
1990		Iraq	Jordan	United Kingdom	Gulf War
		United States	Poland	Iraq
1991	2015	Cuba	Switzerland	United States	Cuban Revolution	See Cuban Interests Section.[12][1]
1995	1999	Canada	United States	Nigeria	Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa
N/A	N/A	Yugoslavia	Cyprus		Yugoslav Wars
	2006	United States	Belgium	Libya	N/A
2011			Turkey		2011 military intervention in Libya	[22]
2012			Poland	Syria	Syrian Civil War	Mandate transferred to the Czech Republic.[23][24]

Consular services

Certain countries may have agreements to provide limited consular services to the citizens of other countries. This does not necessarily constitute a protecting power relationship, as the host country may not have formally agreed, and there may in fact be diplomatic relations between the host country and the third country, but no physical representation. Without the agreement of the host country, consular officials in this role may not be recognized as representing the interests of another, and be limited to a "good offices" role.

• The United States provides consular services to citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, which formerly were part of a US Trust Territory.
• Certain Commonwealth countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, have agreements in certain countries to provide consular services for citizens of the other countries where they do not have physical representation. The United Kingdom provides consular assistance to Canadians abroad where there is no Canadian mission, as stated in each Canadian passport. Canada provides consular assistance to Australian citizens to several states in Latin America and Africa; while Australian diplomatic missions reciprocate in several Asia-Pacific states.^[25][26]
• Under Article 20 section 2c of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union citizens of European Union countries may request consular services at the missions of other EU countries when their home country does not have a mission locally.^[27]
• In 2006, the governments of Montenegro and Serbia adopted the Memorandum of Agreement between the Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia on Consular Protection and Services to the Citizens of Montenegro. By this agreement, Serbia, through its network of diplomatic and consular missions, provides consular services to the Montenegrin citizens on the territory of states in which Montenegro has no missions of its own.^[28]

Other meanings

• Historically a protecting power held a permanent protectorate over a weaker state, which in practice could constitute a form of colonial domination, in the logic of indirect rule.
• The term "friendly protection" also applied to "guarantor" state(s) vowing to prevent the protected state (or a specific part) being overrun by a third party.
• Protecting power has a distinct and separate meaning under the Geneva Conventions for protection of civilians in times of war.^[29]

Notes and references

External links

• Procedures, U.S. as Protecting Power (PDF) U.S. State Department