noun

• A small neutral country situated between two larger hostile countries and serving to prevent the outbreak of regional conflict.

  ‘On the last occasion in 1944, Stalin backed the ‘independent’ republic as a buffer state and provided limited aid.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In order for the country to be accepted as independent and a buffer state, the country needed to reform.’
  • ‘The country's present borders were established at the end of the nineteenth century, ‘when the great powers sought to establish a buffer state between the British and Russian empires.’’
  • ‘Half a century earlier, the British, concerned that Russian and Chinese influences might approach from the north, managed Tibet as a buffer state to protect their Indian domain.’
  • ‘Lodged firmly in Burma and the Malay Peninsula, Britain came to an agreement with France to maintain Thailand as an independent buffer state between their separate empires.’
  • ‘On July 31 France agreed to maintain Thailand as an independent buffer state between French Indochina and British Burma.’
  • ‘In 1828, Uruguay gained independence as a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil.’
  • ‘A second Cisalpine Republic was set up as a buffer state against Austria, and Napoleon even allowed it to be called the Italian Republic in 1802, but Venetia remained outside it.’
  • ‘During the nineteenth century, Afghanistan struggled successfully against the colonial powers and served as a buffer state between Russia and British India.’
  • ‘Such independence was largely the result of geo-political concerns of the Great Powers who needed an autonomous Piedmont to continue serving as a buffer state between France and Austria.’
  • ‘Long written off as a buffer state between China and Russia, Mongolia, twice the size of Texas but with 13 percent of the population, is embarking on a classic exercise in modern nation building.’
  • ‘Originally backed by the Venetians, who wanted a compliant buffer state between themselves and their mainland enemies, the Carrara soon made it clear they had grander ambitions.’
  • ‘It would seem, therefore, that the Votadini had allied themselves with Rome and may even have been, at certain times, a buffer state on the edge of the Empire.’
  • ‘Austria was no longer a bulwark against the east, but a buffer state between two competing ideologies.’
  • ‘The absorption of Poland meant that there was no longer a buffer state separating Russia from Prussia.’
  • ‘This represented an adjustment of Roman foreign policy in the east, where independent client kings had always been imposed on this buffer state with Parthia.’
  • ‘The French did this to ensure a Christian dominated buffer state next to Syria.’
  • ‘The establishment of a belt of buffer states in Eastern Europe, whose governments were directly dependent on Moscow, served their security interests.’
  • ‘The Moscow bureaucracy had no interest in a revolutionary development either in the West or in the buffer states.’