Protecting power
The practice of selecting a protecting power in time of peace was formalized in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961).
For example, when Iraq and the U.S. broke diplomatic relations due to the Gulf War, Poland became the protecting power for the United States.
For instance, in the Second World War, Japan appointed Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to be its protecting powers in the United States.
[7][8]: 550 All of the belligerents appointed protecting powers, necessitated by the expulsion of diplomats and placing of restrictions on enemy aliens.
The energetic efforts of Elihu B. Washburne, the United States Minister to France, set a precedent for the actions of protecting powers in war.
As the only chief of mission from a major power to remain in the French capital during the Siege of Paris, he was also charged with the protection of seven Latin American consulates and was responsible for feeding 3,000 German civilians who were stuck in the city.
In the First Sino-Japanese War, both sides selected the United States as their protecting power, establishing the concept of a reciprocal mandate.
The Netherlands, acting as the protecting power for the Boer Republics, was also unable to secure an agreement to exchange the names of prisoners of war.
The pinnacle of American diplomatic protection came during World War I, when the United States accepted reciprocal mandates from five of the largest belligerents on both sides: Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire.
[12] When the United States entered the war on the Allied side in 1917, the American mandates were transferred to smaller neutrals, with the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland being popular choices.
[7] The United States remained a popular choice at the start of World War II, accepting 75 mandates on behalf of Allied countries between 1939 and 1941.
In terms of major roles Swiss diplomats had the mandate to protect Germany's interest in Britain, the United States, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Dutch Indonesia.
The diplomats arranged travel permissions, helping tens of thousands of people to return to their home countries after being trapped in an enemy nation.
Anticipating a war in which every country was a belligerent, the Conventions provide the option of appointing an international organization as protecting power.
[16] 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.
[17] The interests section was born in the aftermath of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, when nine African countries broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
This difficulty was resolved by Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Conventions, which stipulated that the belligerents should nominate protecting powers to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
If no arrangement could be made with a third country, then the belligerents had to accept the Red Cross or another international organization to act as the protecting power.
