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chargÃ© d'affaires

ad interim (a.i.)

The member of a diplomatic mission who takes charge of an embassy or a legation during the temporary absence of its head, or pending the appointment of a new head. Sending states generally like a c.d.a. to be a member of their diplomatic service rather than a high-ranking specialist who is serving as a temporary diplomat. To achieve that end such an officer\'s diplomatic rank may be upgraded to place him or her as number two in the mission\'s internal order of precedence. The receiving state\'s foreign ministry must be informed of the appointment of a c.d.a (a.i.) by the ambassador or minister (sense 1) or, if that is not possible, by the sending state\'s foreign ministry.

In recent times the concept of ad interim has been greatly stretched, perhaps as a device to avoid having to call a diplomatic mission something other than an embassy. Thus from 1977 to 1980, due to their deteriorating relations over the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas, Argentina and Britain reduced their diplomatic missions in each other\'s capitals to ones headed by a chargÃ© d\'affaires - but each officer was designated as acting ad interim. Likewise, the Argentinian head of mission in South Africa from 1974 to 1984 was a chargÃ© d\'affaires ad interim. And throughout the 1990s tension in the relations between Britain and Iran led to a situation in which the missions they exchanged were each headed by a chargÃ© d\'affaires (a.i.). See also acting high commissioner; secretary of embassy/legation.

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