Editing Satellite state (section)

{{Short description|Country which is nominally sovereign but under extensive influence from a larger state}}
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{{More citations needed|date=June 2017}}
{{Forms of government}}
A '''satellite state''' or '''dependent state''' is a [[country]] that is formally independent but under heavy [[Politics|political]], [[Economics|economic]], and [[military]] influence or control from another country.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Betts |first1=R. R. |title=The European Satellite States: Their War Contribution and Present Position |journal=International Affairs |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=January 1945 |pages=15–29 |doi=10.2307/3018989 |jstor=3018989}}</ref> The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects [[Satellite|orbiting]] a larger object, such as smaller moons revolving around larger planets, and is used mainly to refer to [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]an member states of the [[Warsaw Pact]] during the [[Cold War]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/archives/1st5years/chapters/1.htm|title=Source: NATO website 2nd Footnote at bottom|website=nato.int|access-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816194558/http://www.nato.int/archives/1st5years/chapters/1.htm|archive-date=16 August 2017}}</ref> as well as to [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]] and [[Tuvan People's Republic|Tuva]] between 1924 and 1990,<ref name=Sik>{{cite book|page=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ecjepq80QC&pg=PA39|title=Nationality and International Law in Asian Perspective|isbn=978-0-7923-0876-8|last1=Sik|first1=Ko Swan|year=1990| publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers }}</ref> all of which were economically, culturally, and politically [[Eastern Bloc|dominated]] by the [[Soviet Union]]. While primarily referring to the Soviet-controlled states in Central and Eastern Europe or Asia, in some contexts the term also refers to other countries under [[Soviet empire|Soviet hegemony]] during the Cold War, such as [[North Korea]] (especially in the years surrounding the [[Korean War]] of 1950–1953), [[Cuba]] (particularly after it joined the [[Comecon]] in 1972), and some countries in the American sphere of influence, such as [[South Vietnam]] (particularly during the [[Vietnam War]]). In Western usage, the term has seldom been applied to states other than those in the Soviet orbit. In Soviet usage, the term applied to states in the orbit of [[Nazi Germany]], [[Fascist Italy]], and [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]], whereas in the West the term to refer to those has typically been ''[[client state]]s''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' traces the concept of satellite states in English back as early as 1780.<ref name="OED">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=satellite, n. meanings, etymology and more |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/satellite_n?tab=meaning_and_use#24278178 |language=en}}</ref> In times of [[war]] or political tension, satellite states sometimes served as [[Buffer zone|buffers]] between an enemy country and the nation exerting control over the satellites.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Alan |title=Stalin and Stalinism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvxtVk0XMpgC&pg=PA62 |access-date=2009-09-10 |year=2005 |orig-year=1990 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-30732-1 |page=62}}</ref>