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A small group of diplomats of one state working under the flag of a second on the territory of a third, the interests section is an elaboration of the much older diplomatic institution of the protecting power. There were harbingers of this development in Istanbul at least as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century. When an embassy in the city was forced to close, sometimes one of its dragomans would be transferred to the embassy or consulate-general of the protecting power, where he would continue his previous work. However, the first proper interests sections were not established until May 1965 (in Cairo and Bonn), following the decision of Egypt to break diplomatic relations (sense 1) with West Germany in retaliation for the decision of the latter to open them with Israel. Designed to maintain communication in the absence of diplomatic relations, the interests section permits the sending state to retain its own diplomats in the receiving state by the ruse of attaching them in law, together with their mission premises, to the embassy of a protecting power. (Previously, the protecting power\'s own embassy staff had to do the work of protection.) The idea quickly caught on, and interests sections have since been widely used as half-way houses to the restoration of diplomatic relations as well as to cope with their recent breach. Thus South Africa and the Soviet Union, which had severed diplomatic relations in 1955, each opened an interests section in the other\'s capital (under the protection of Austria) in February 1991. In the receiving state\'s diplomatic list, an interests section appears as part of the diplomatic mission of the protecting power.
Though some American interests sections are very large, it is a mistake to regard them as embassies in all but name. Interests sections are usually very small (two or three diplomats); it appears necessary for all of their members to receive agrément; and service attachés are barred. |
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