buffer states
Nations between rivals
Buffer states are countries situated between larger, potentially hostile powers, serving to reduce direct conflict by providing geographic separation.
They exist partly at the sufferance of their powerful neighbors: Belgium was a buffer state between France and Germany.
The term implies precarious sovereignty—buffer states may be neutral by treaty or simply too useful as cushions to absorb.
- intermediaryAgent linking two parties
- borderlandTerritory at a boundary
- MongoliaCentral Asian landlocked nation
- neutral zoneProhibited hostility area
- no man's landUnowned space between enemies
frontier · balance of power · boundary · demilitarized · iron curtain · corridor · Finland · territories · cordon sanitaire · power vacuum · Eastern Bloc · sphere of influence · geopolitical · geopolitical strategy · marchlands · contested · proxy war · barrier
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- communismMarx, Marxism, Leninism, Lenin, proletariat
- geopoliticsbalance of power, bipolarity, bloc, blocs, brinkmanship
- Napoleonic EraNapoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Bonaparte, Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic Code
- 19th Century Diplomacyambassador, ambassadors, envoy, envoys, Congress of Vienna
- ancient diplomacyenvoys, ambassadors, emissaries, peace treaties, alliances
buffer statessuperpowers
Capabilities beyond human limits
great powers · hegemon · world powers · colonial powers · empires
buffer statesforward bases
Military positions near combat zones
bridgeheads · Lebensraum · occupied territories · satellite states · puppet states
buffer, states, buffers, buffering, buffered, buffer zone, buffer zones, unbuffered, buffer state