Question

What is a buffer state?

Answer 1

A Buffer state is a country that acts as a neutral state between two hostile or rival countries. Examples of buffer states in the past Afghanistan

Answer 2

A buffer state is a term in political geography that designates a country situated between two predictably hostile major powers, and which, by its very existence, may prevent any conflict between them. Generally, when a buffer state is truly independent, its foreign policy has a neutral orientation. The concept of a buffer state was formed in the diplomatic milieu of seventeenth-century Europe, although in retrospect one can find examples of such states at all times.