Client state

Client state is a term used to refer to any state whose administration is economically, militarily, and politically dependent on another country.

In its day in the sun, Britain had controlled the region by delegating authority to clients, with British force in the background. In the terminology of the Foreign Office, local management was to be left to an "Arab facade" of weak compliant rulers, while Britain's "absorption" would be veiled "by constitutional fictions," a device considered more cost-effective than direct rule. With variations, the device is familiar elsewhere.

Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Surival: America's Quest for Global Dominance

Examples

• Israel
• Viet Nam (prior to the war)
• Iran (during the reign of the Shah)