Diplomatic Recognition for Kosovo

With the US presidential season in full swing and the recent political events in Cuba and Pakistan, Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia. The US has long supported this move, and earlier this week, the US was one of the first countries to officially recognize the independent state of Kosovo. So how did that happen? How does the US recognize the existence of a foreign country?

According to Article 2, Section 3 of the US Constitution, the President of the United States has the power to “…receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.”

This means that the US President has the power to accept the legitimacy of a foreign government by accepting its ambassador or other representative to the United States. If the President does not choose to receive the ambassador from another country, there is nothing that Congress or the Supreme Court can do about it. The power to recognize the existence of foreign countries belongs to the President alone.

US Presidents don’t get to use this power very often. In 1996, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, they sought diplomatic recognition by the United States, but President Clinton refused. Therefore, as far as the US was concerned, the real government of Afghanistan was not the Taliban, but the government that the Taliban had deposed. When the US invaded Afghanistan a few years ago, the war was billed as the restoration of the rightful government. Since the US had continued to recognize the pre-Taliban system of government, the US saw itself as deposing an unlawful regime.

President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton also had the chance to use their power to receive ambassadors in the early 1990s, when many former Soviet Republics were declaring their independence. After careful consideration of each one, the President decided whether or not the US would recognize the independence of each country. For instance, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan were recognized by the US, but Chechnya was not.

By the way, President Jefferson was a little touchy about this power. He refused to receive an ambassador from France who arrived with a letter of introduction addressed to the US Congress. He declared that he would only receive ambassadors who arrived with properly addressed credentials.