Diplomatic recognition

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Diplomatic recognition

Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral political act, with domestic and international legal consequences, whereby a state acknowledges an act or status of another state or government

Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
. Recognition can be accorded either de facto
De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
or de jure
De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing politics or legal situations....
, usually by a statement of the recognizing government.

gnition of a government implies recognition of the state it governs, but not vice versa.

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Government

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

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
, rather than de jure

De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing politics or legal situations....
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

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
recognised the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
de facto in 1921, but de jure only in 1924. Another example is the state of Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
in 1948, whose government was immediately recognised de facto by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
(and later Britain), and "one-upped" 3 days later by Soviet

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
de jure recognition.

Renewing recognition of a government is not necessary when it changes in a normal, constitutional way (such as an election

Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
or referendum

Referendum

A referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire Constituency is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal....
), but is in the case of a coup d'etat

Coup d'état

A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
or revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
. Recognition of the new government by other states can be important for its long term survival. For instance, the Taliban government of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, which lasted only from 1996 to 2001, was recognised by only Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
, the United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia....
and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south....
, while far more had recognised the government of ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani

Burhanuddin Rabbani

Burhanuddin Rabbani , an ethnic Tajiks, is a former President of Afghanistan. Burhanuddin Rabbani is the leader of Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan ....
.

Recognition can be implied by other acts, like the visit of the head of state

Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political 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

Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization regarded by the Arab League since October 1974 as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."...
in 1988.

The doctrine of non-recognition of illegal or immoral factual situations (e.g. territorial gains achieved by the use of force

Violence

Violence is the expression of physical force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects ....
) is called the Stimson Doctrine

Stimson Doctrine

The Stimson Doctrine is a policy of the United States Federal government of the United States, enunciated in a note of January 7 1932 to Japan and China, of non-diplomatic recognition of international territorial changes affected by force....
, and has become more important since the Second World War, especially in the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
as a method of ensuring compliance with international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of states and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond domestic legal interpretation and enforcement....
, for instance in the case of Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia was the name adopted when the formerly British colonies of Southern Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965. The name was also used with the establishment of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979....
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

United States

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union. It continued to recognise the independence of these three states until 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. Actually, 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

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, but only at this time recognised it de jure. This recognition was withdrawn in December 1975 by the Fraser

Malcolm Fraser

John Malcolm Fraser, Order of Australia, Order of the Companions of Honour is an Australian Liberal Party of Australia politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia....
Government.

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

Subregion

A subregion is a conceptual unit which derives from a larger region or continent and is usually based on location. Cardinal directions, such as south or southern, are commonly used to define a subregion....
with an ethnic or national identity of their own that have "broken off" (i.e. separated

Separatism

Separatism refers to the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial or gender separation from the larger group, often with demands for greater political Autonomous entity and even for full political secession and the formation of a new state....
themselves) from their original parent state

State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
, and hence they are commonly referred to as "break-away" states. Some of these entities are in effect internally self-governing protectorate

Protectorate

A protectorate, in international law, is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity, in exchange for which the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of their relationship....
s 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

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
) and those with only partial control (such as Tamil Eelam

Tamil Eelam

Tamil Eelam is the name given by certain Sri Lankan Tamil people groups in Sri Lanka to the state which they aspire to create in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka and Eastern Province, Sri Lanka provinces of Sri Lanka....
). 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 the occupation

Military occupation

Belligerent military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a belligerent....
or annexation

Annexation

Annexation is the legal incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities....
of territory, or belligerent

Belligerent

A belligerent is an individual, group, country or other entity which acts in a hostile manner, such as engaging in combat.In times of war, belligerent countries can be contrasted with neutral country and non-belligerents....
rights of a party in a conflict. The last does not mean that the recognizing party considers the recognized a state.

Examples of recognition of belligerent

Belligerent

The United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
recognized the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America formed as the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern United States U.S. state of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S....
as belligerents in the first month of the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
.
Bolivia
Bolivia

The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....
, Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Ecuador
Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west....
, Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
recognized the Sandinista National Liberation Front
Sandinista National Liberation Front

The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist Nicaraguan political party. Their organization is generally referred to by the initials FSLN and its members are called, in both English and Spanish, Sandinistas....
as a belligerent in Nicaragua's civil war in June, 1979.
France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
and Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
recognized the FMLN as a belligerent in the civil war in El Salvador
El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest country in the Americas and Central America by size, and the most densely populated nation in Central America. It borders on the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras....
on August 28. 1981.

Diplomatic recognition

Recognition of states and governments

Unrecognized state

Other types of recognition

See also