Protecting power

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The concept of protecting power is used in various contexts.

As a protectorate power

Protective powers assume sovereign rights and guarantees for protective states or protectorates .

In a diplomatic sense

In a diplomatic sense, a protecting power represents members of another state (or even the latter itself) in the host country through its diplomatic missions , especially during armed conflicts between them ( protecting power representation ). These mandates are set out in Art. 45 lit. c VCDR regulated.

For example, Switzerland has represented the interests of the USA in Iran since 1980.

Before regular diplomatic relations between Germany and North Korea were established in 2001, the Kingdom of Sweden acted as a protective power for Germany (in North Korea). The People's Republic of China, on the other hand, acted as a protective power for North Korea (in Germany).

Even before the WÜD came into force, the protecting power mandates were regulated in Art. 86 of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of July 27, 1929, later in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Art. 8 of the Geneva Conventions I, II and III and Art. 9 of the Agreement IV). The two-volume work by Niklas Wagner, Holger Raasch and Thomas Pröpstl, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, shows that Switzerland took over 260 diplomatic protective power representations from a total of 43 states during the Second World War. The statement of accounts of the Department for Foreign Interests of the Federal Political Department of Switzerland from 1946, however, lists only 35 countries.

As the guarantee power of contracts

A “protective power” is also a “guarantee power” for international treaties . Austria , for example, guarantees the Gruber-De-Gasperi Agreement on South Tyrol ; Great Britain , Greece and Turkey guaranteed the Zurich and London agreements on Cyprus .

As a colonial power

The term “protecting power” is also used in connection with colonialism / imperialism . The German Empire called its colonies "protected areas" and therefore saw itself more as a protecting power than a colonial power . The League of Nations and later the UN gave some countries such as the USA, Italy , France , Belgium , Great Britain, South Africa , Australia and New Zealand mandates over formerly German and Ottoman territories and possessions. These states then exercised the protective power function. In practice, however, most of the transferred areas were administered like colonies and incorporated into the existing colonial empire or national territory .

In a geopolitical sense

Before the Franco-Prussian War, France appeared as the Pope's protective power ; which at that time to a nation together closing Italians but claimed the papal state in Rome .

Since the First World War , Russia has also been seen as the protective power of Serbia , which can mainly be traced back to the Slavic ethnicity ( Pan-Slavism ). For example, Russia pleaded against intervening in the 1998/99 Kosovo war without a UN mandate on the side of the Kosovar Albanians or the KLA.

The USA is considered to be the protecting power of Israel .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Protecting power  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Iran , accessed on November 21, 2018.
  2. Information from the Federal Foreign Office on the political relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and North Korea , accessed on January 8, 2013.
  3. Niklas Wagner, Holger Raasch, Thomas Pröpstl: Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of April 24, 1963: Commentary for Practice. Berlin 2007, p. 398.
  4. ^ Annual report of the Department for Foreign Interests, Appendix VI. in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
  5. ^ Paul Widmer: The Swiss Legation in Berlin. History of a difficult diplomatic post . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85823-683-7 , p. 264 .