Buffer state

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A buffer state is a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict between them. Buffer states, when authentically independent, typically pursue a neutralist foreign policy, which distinguishes them from satellite states. The conception of buffer states is part of the theory of balance of power that entered European strategic and diplomatic thinking in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the manipulation of buffer states like Afghanistan and the Central Asian emirates was an element in the diplomatic "Great Game" played out between Britain and Tsarist Russia for control of the approaches to strategic mountain passes that led to British India.

Other examples of buffer states include:

Qasim Khanate, between Muscovy and Kazan Khanate
Mongolia, between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, now Russia
Poland following World War I, located between Germany and the Soviet Union
Iraq, before and after the US invasion of 2003 and the subsequent occupation, is considered by some a buffer state between Iran and Israel.
North Korea during and after the Cold War, whom some analysts see as a buffer state between the military forces of the People's Republic of China and American forces in South Korea
Neutral Austria, Sweden and Finland were buffer states during the Cold War.
Belgium before World War I, serving as a buffer between the United Kingdom, France, and Germany
Thailand during colonial times, served as a buffer between British India (later Burma) and French Indochina
Ethiopia served as an independent buffer in East Africa during the colonial era
The Rhineland served as a demilitarised buffer-zone between France and Germany during the inter-war years of the 1920s and early 1930s. There were early French attempts at creating a Rhineland republic.

The invasion of a buffer state by one of the powers surrounding it will often result in war between the powers.

The earlier forms of highly defended border regions, where defensive castles stood at a distance of a day's march are discussed at Marches. Some political remains of borderland marches established under the Carolingian and Ottonian Empires can be seen on the European map today: Belgium, Luxembourg, Lorraine. The Carolingian Empire also created some independent duchies in the Pyrenean border acting as buffer states against the Muslim kingdoms, an area called the Hispanic March, giving form to nowadays Catalonia.

Even earlier, compare the highly-defended Roman Empire's limes with its "client kingdoms" like Palmyra, Judaea, Numidia or Mauretania. And compare the Persian Empire's system of satrapies.

Buffer state

See also