Instead of confronting a (usually hostile) Russian/ Sovietempire on its border, a vast swath of buffer states appeared after1991.

Andorra came into existence partly as a buffer State between two powerful lords and between two approaches to Christianity: the orthodox and the Cathar.

Beyond preventing Somalia’s violence from spilling overinto Kenya and undermining its security and its tourist-driveneconomy, such a buffer state could be forced to absorb thehalf-million Somali refugees who now live in Dadaab’s refugeecamps.

But a political settlement within Afghanistan cannotsucceed without a regional grand bargain. The first Great Game wasresolved a century ago by making Afghanistan a buffer state inwhich outsiders did not interfere.

It would strengthen Israel’s relations with Egypt, help tostabilize Jordan (a vital and friendly buffer state), and remove amajor source of tension with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamist government.

The long-term costs of a worsening security confrontationwith the US would exceed the short-term tactical benefits to bederived from continuing to support the North as a buffer state,especially given China’s deepening relationship with South Korea.

The tragedy of Korea is that no one really wishes to changethe status quo: China wants to keep North Korea as a buffer state,and fears millions of refugees in the event of a North Koreancollapse; the South Koreans could never afford to absorb North Korea in the way that West Germany absorbed the broken German Democratic Republic; and neither Japan nor the US would relishpaying to clean up after a North Korean implosion, either.

The Commander of the Turkish Forces confirmed that his troops had fired warning shots towards civilians in the buffer zone and stated that the principal concern of the Turkish Forces regarded the use of land close to their ceasefire line.

The Soviet Union also wanted to surround itself with aprotective buffer of like-minded states, and Italy’s Benito Mussolini was proud that for a time fascism was a competitiveexport.

While the need for coordination is frequently emphasized, it is equally stressed that coordination mechanisms must not act to control or constrain the mandates and activities of the donors and providers, nor act as a “buffer zone” between the State requesting assistance and the provider.