Buffer States and Geographic Defense

A buffer state is a smaller or weaker country positioned between two larger rival powers, whose continued independence, rather than annexation by either side, is often actively preferred by both neighbors because it avoids a direct, destabilizing border between them. Mongolia, sandwiched between Russia and China across roughly 3,500 km of border with each, has occupied this role since gaining full independence from China in 1921 with Soviet backing, remaining a buffer through the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s and into the present triangular relationship among Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, and Beijing. Nepal and Bhutan perform a similar function in the Himalayas between India and China, with Bhutan's foreign policy historically guided closely by New Delhi under a 1949 friendship treaty (revised in 2007) precisely because its territory borders the Doklam plateau, the site of a tense 73-day Indian-Chinese military standoff in 2017.