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'Diplomatic recognition' is a political act by which one state acknowledges an act or status of another state or government, thereby according it legitimacy and expressing its intent to bring into force the domestic and international legal consequences of recognition. Recognition can be accorded either de facto or de jure, usually by a statement of the recognising government.

Contents

Recognition of states and governments

Unrecognized state

Other types of recognition

References

See also

Recognition of states and governments

Recognition of a government implies recognition of the state it governs, but not vice versa. Recognition of states de facto, rather than de jure is rare, and questions center around recognition of governments. De jure recognition is of course stronger, while de facto recognition is more tentative and more connected with effective control of the recognised state over its territory, as when the United Kingdom recognised the Soviet Union de facto in 1921, but de jure only in 1924. Another example is the state of Israel in 1948, whose government was immediately recognised de facto by the United States (and later Britain), and "one-upped" 3 days later by Soviet de jure recognition.
Renewing recognition of a government is not necessary when it changes in a normal, constitutional way, but is in the case of a coup d'etat or revolution. Recognition of the new government by other states can be important for its long term survival. For instance, the Taliban government of Afghanistan, which lasted only from 1996 to 2001, was recognised by only three countries, while far more had recognised the government of ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Recognition can be implied by other acts, like the visit of the head of state, or the signing of a bilateral treaty. If implicit recognition is possible, a state may feel the need to explicitly proclaim that its acts do not constitute diplomatic recognition, as when the United States commenced its dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1988.
The doctrine of non-recognition of illegal or immoral factual situations (e.g. territorial gains achieved by the use of force) is called the Stimson Doctrine, and has become more important since the Second World War, especially in the United Nations as a method of ensuring compliance with international law, for instance in the case of Rhodesia in 1965. Withdrawal of recognition is an even more severe act of disapproval of another state than the breaking of diplomatic relations.
Another example is the United States non-recognition of the WWII annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union. It continued to recognise the independence of these three states until surprisingly with the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, these states once more came into being in fact, rather than just on paper.
In 1974 the Australian Whitlam Government recognised de jure the incorporation of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) into the Soviet Union. In actual fact the Soviet Union had control over the Baltic States since the completion of the Second World War. Prior to 1974 Australia had recognised de facto control over the Baltic States by the Soviet Union, but only at this time recognised it de jure.

Unrecognized state

Several of the world's geo-political entities lack general international recognition, but wish to be recognized as sovereign states. The degree of ''de facto'' control these entities exert over the territories they claim varies.
Most are subnational regions with an ethnic or national identity of their own that have "broken off" (i.e. separated themselves) from their original parent state, and hence they are commonly referred to as "break-away" states. Some of these entities are in effect internally self-governing protectorates that enjoy military protection and informal diplomatic representation abroad through another state to prevent forced reincorporation into their original states.
Note that the word "control" in this list refers to ''control'' over the area ''occupied'', not ''occupation'' of the area ''claimed''. Virtually no unrecognized country controls all the area it claims. Unrecognized countries can be separated into those which have full control over their occupied territory (such as, for instance, Republic of China) and those with only partial control (such as Tamil Eelam). The main difference is that in the former, the ''de jure'' governments of the areas in question have no (or nearly no) influence in the areas under question, whereas in the latter they can have varying degrees of control, and may provide essential services to people living in the areas.

Other types of recognition

Other things which can be recognised include belligerent rights of a party in a conflict, the occupation or annexation of territory.
Examples of recognition of belligerent status include:

★ The United Kingdom recognized the Confederate States of America as belligerents in the first month of the American Civil War.

★ Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela recognized the Sandinista National Liberation Front as a belligerent in Nicaragua's civil war in June, 1979.

★ France and Mexico recognized the FMLN as a belligerent in the civil war in El Salvador on August 28. 1981.

References

★ Tozun Bahcheli, Barry Bartmann, and Henry Srebrnik; ''De Facto States: The Quest for Sovereignty ,'' Routledge, (2004) onine edition

★ The Baltic Dilemma, The case of the de jure recognition of incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Unions by Australia, Edgars Dunsdorfs, , , Robert Speller & Sons, New York, 1975, ISBN 0-8315-0148-0

★ Law Among Nations: An Introduction to Public International Law, Gerhard von Glahn, , , Macmillan, 1992, ISBN 0-02-423175-4

★ International Law, Malcolm N. Shaw, , , Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-53183-7

★ Stefan Talmon; ''Recognition of Governments in International Law: With Particular Reference to Governments in Exile'' Clarendon Press, (1998) online edition

★ Gregory Weeks; "Almost Jeffersonian: U.S. Recognition Policy toward Latin America," ''Presidential Studies Quarterly,'' Vol. 31, 2001 onine edition

See also

★ Declarative theory of statehood

★ Constitutive theory of statehood

★ List of unrecognised states