client state
noun
: a country that is economically, politically, or militarily dependent on another country
Examples of client state in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
During the Cold War, Washington and Moscow provided both internal and external security assistance to their client states, and few if any countries maintained security relationships with both superpowers.
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Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Foreign Affairs, 15 Mar. 2024
Expansion-minded Chinese nationalists, coupled with China’s increasing contempt for Russian military weakness, are quite capable of harnessing China’s resentments over past defeats to turn on their diminished client state to the north.
—Craig Hooper, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
This order is backed by a U.S.-led network of alliances, institutions, geopolitical bargains, client states, and democratic partnerships.
—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs, 17 Apr. 2014
His ties with the Nigerian government were obvious, which meant so, too, were his secondary ties with the Chinese government, who through economic subsidies and military alliances had turned Nigeria into a partner, if not a client state.
—Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 7 Feb. 2024
By that time, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson was several years into a strategy of building bridges to the Soviet Union’s Eastern European client states through economic and cultural programs intending to sever Soviet influence.
—Van Jackson, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2015
Yemen is a client state of its rich neighbor Saudi Arabia, but is locked in an internal war with Houthi rebels supported by Iran.
—Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman, 24 Jan. 2024
That planted the seeds of the collapse of the Soviet Union by showing its client states that their sponsor was unable to help them militarily.
—WSJ, 14 Nov. 2023
But signs of what the future may hold in the CAR, one of the organization’s first client states and its laboratory on the continent, are beginning to emerge in Bangui.
—Sebastian Shukla, CNN, 18 Sep. 2023
Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Foreign Affairs, 15 Mar. 2024
Expansion-minded Chinese nationalists, coupled with China’s increasing contempt for Russian military weakness, are quite capable of harnessing China’s resentments over past defeats to turn on their diminished client state to the north.
—Craig Hooper, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
This order is backed by a U.S.-led network of alliances, institutions, geopolitical bargains, client states, and democratic partnerships.
—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs, 17 Apr. 2014
His ties with the Nigerian government were obvious, which meant so, too, were his secondary ties with the Chinese government, who through economic subsidies and military alliances had turned Nigeria into a partner, if not a client state.
—Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 7 Feb. 2024
By that time, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson was several years into a strategy of building bridges to the Soviet Union’s Eastern European client states through economic and cultural programs intending to sever Soviet influence.
—Van Jackson, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2015
Yemen is a client state of its rich neighbor Saudi Arabia, but is locked in an internal war with Houthi rebels supported by Iran.
—Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman, 24 Jan. 2024
That planted the seeds of the collapse of the Soviet Union by showing its client states that their sponsor was unable to help them militarily.
—WSJ, 14 Nov. 2023
But signs of what the future may hold in the CAR, one of the organization’s first client states and its laboratory on the continent, are beginning to emerge in Bangui.
—Sebastian Shukla, CNN, 18 Sep. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'client state.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Client state.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/client%20state. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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