Diplomatic dominos: South America and the recognition of (the State of) Palestine

Abstract

Diplomatic recognition of the Palestinian state has made significant progress in recent years, including in Latin America. In the specific case of South America, all but one of the states have already extended some type of diplomatic recognition to Palestine. As a central issue of the Montevideo Convention on Statehood, the discussion of the meaning of diplomatic recognition in the current state system with its importance surfaces once again. The central theme of this paper is an examination of the process and explanations for South American states’ provision of diplomatic recognition to Palestine, especially given by leftist governments but not necessarily as a result of a specific ideological orientation, while a single country, Colombia, part of the same cultural-geographical region, and even though attached to the same principles of the international law and decisions made by the United Nations, has not provided it.