Puppet state


A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a state that is de jure independent but de facto completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its demands. Puppet states have nominal sovereignty, except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through major economic backing or military support. By leaving a local government in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralysing the local government they tolerate.
Puppet states differ from allies, who choose their actions of their own initiative or in accordance with treaties they have voluntarily entered. Puppet states are often forced into legally endorse actions already taken by a foreign power.

Characteristics

Puppet states are "endowed with the outward symbols of authority", such as a name, flag, anthem, constitution, law codes, motto, and government, but in reality, are appendages of another state which creates, sponsors or otherwise controls the puppet government. International law does not recognise occupied puppet states as legitimate.
Puppet states can cease to be puppets through:
  • military defeat of the "master" state,
  • Full annexation by the master state,
  • achievement of independence

Terminology

The term is a metaphor which compares a state or government to a puppet controlled by a puppeteer with strings. The first recorded use of the term "puppet government" was in 1884, in reference to the Khedivate of Egypt.
In the Middle Ages, vassal states existed based on delegation of the rule of a country by a king to noble men of lower rank. Since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the concept of a nation came into existence where sovereignty was connected more to the people who inhabited the land than to the nobility who owned the land.
An earlier similar concept is suzerainty, the control of the external affairs of one state by another.

Nineteenth-century examples

French revolutionary and Napoleon/Napoleonic clients

The Batavian Republic was established in the Netherlands under French revolutionary protection.
In Italy, the French First Republic encouraged a proliferation of small republics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, known as sister republics.
In Eastern Europe, Napoleon's First French Empire established the Polish client state of the Duchy of Warsaw.

List of Sister Republics

British Empire

  • Princely states operated similarly to puppet states.

Early twentieth-century examples

Established by the German Empire

By others

World War II

Imperial Japan

During Japan's imperial period, and particularly during the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese government established a number of dependent states.

Nominally sovereign states

Azad Hind, officially known as Provisional Government of Free India – established by Indian nationalists in Singapore in October 1943 by Subhas Chandra Bose and was in charge of Indian expatriates and military personnel in Japanese Southeast Asia. It had nominal sovereignty over Axis controlled Indian territories and would enjoy the prospective control of Indian territory to be captured in a future invasion of British India. Of the territory of post-independence India, the government took charge of Kohima, parts of Manipur that fell to both the Japanese 15th Army and the INA, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The government had diplomatic relationships with eleven countries including Germany, Italy, Japan, Philippines, and the Soviet Union. It was headed by Subhas Chandra Bose, who was the Head of the State and Prime Minister, who was also the Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army. The government had its own cabinet and banks.

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy

Several European governments under the domination of Germany and Italy during World War II have been described as "puppet régimes". The formal means of control in occupied Europe varied greatly. These states fall into several categories.

Existing states in alliance with Germany and Italy

Existing states under German or Italian rule

New states formed to reflect national aspirations

States and governments under the control of Germany and Italy

Italian Social Republic

Soviet examples after 1939

Puppet states later absorbed into the Soviet Union

Soviet puppet states in Central Asia

Other states under Soviet influence

Yugoslavia was a communist state closely linked to the Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia retained autonomy within its own borders. After the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, the relationship between the two countries deteriorated significantly. Yugoslavia was expelled from the international organisations of the Eastern Bloc. After Stalin's death and a period of de-Stalinization by Nikita Khrushchev, peace was restored, but the relationship between the two countries was never completely mended. Yugoslavia continued to pursue independent policies and became the founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Examples before and during decolonisation

In some cases, the process of decolonisation has been managed by the decolonising power to create a neo-colony, that is a nominally independent state whose economy and politics permits continued foreign domination. Neo-colonies are not normally considered puppet states.

Dutch East Indies

The Netherlands formed several puppet states in the former Dutch East Indies as part of its effort to quell the Indonesian National Revolution.

Congo crisis

Following the Belgian Congo's independence as Congo-Leopoldville in 1960, Belgian interests supported the short-lived breakaway State of Katanga.

East Timor

Indonesia established a Provisional Government of East Timor following its invasion of East Timor in December 1975.

South Africa's Bantustans

Image:Namibia homelands 78.jpeg|thumb|Map of Bantustans in South West Africa as of 1978
During the 1970s and 1980s, four ethnic Bantustans - some of which were extremely fragmented - called "homelands" by the government of the time, were carved out of South Africa and given nominal sovereignty. Mostly Xhosa people resided in the Ciskei and Transkei, Tswana people in Bophuthatswana, and Venda people in the Venda.
The principal purpose of these states was to remove South African citizenship from the Xhosa, Tswana, and Venda peoples, and so provide grounds for denying them their democratic rights. All four Bantustans were reincorporated into a democratic South Africa on 27 April 1994, under a new constitution.
The South African authorities established ten Bantustans in South West Africa, then illegally occupied by South Africa, in the late 1960s and early 1970s in accordance with the Odendaal Commission. Three of them were granted self-rule. These Bantustans were replaced with separate ethnicity-based governments in 1980.

Post-Cold War examples

Republic of Kuwait

The Republic of Kuwait was a short-lived pro-Iraqi state in the Persian Gulf that only existed three weeks before it was annexed by Iraq in 1990.

Republic of Serbian Krajina

The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed territory ethnically cleansed by Serbian forces during the Croatian War. It was completely dependent on the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milošević, and was not recognised internationally.

Recent and current examples

Multiple often unrecognised states had been described or accused of being a puppet state of other countries.

United States

  • – Many, including the Taliban who now comprise the country's current government, considered the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to have been a U.S. puppet state.
  • – Critics of the Iraqi Interim Government argued that it existed only at the pleasure of the United States and other coalition countries and considered it a U.S. puppet government. This criticism was also extended to politicians active within the Interim Government, with the media suggesting that Ayad Allawi, was Washington's puppet. The CPA's economy was dominated by American influence. The CPA began to dismantle Iraq's centrally planned economy. Paul Bremer, chief executive of the CPA, planned to restructure Iraq's state owned economy with free market thinking. Bremer dropped the corporate tax rate from around 45% to a flat tax rate of 15% and allowed foreign corporations to repatriate all profits earned in Iraq. Opposition from senior Iraqi officials, together with the poor security situation, meant that Bremer's privatisation plan was not implemented during his tenure, though his orders remained in place. CPA Order 39 laid out the framework for full privatisation in Iraq and permitted 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets and strengthened the positions of foreign businesses and investors. Critics like Naomi Klein argued that CPA Order 39 was designed to create as favourable an environment for foreign investors as possible, which would allow U.S. corporations to dominate Iraq's economy. Also controversial was CPA Order 17 which granted all foreign contractors operating in Iraq immunity from "Iraqi legal process," effectively granting immunity from any kind of suit, civil or criminal, for actions the contractors engaged in within Iraq. CPA Order 49 also provided significant tax cuts for corporations operating within Iraq by reducing the rate from a maximum of 40% to a maximum of just 15% on income. Furthermore, corporations who collaborated with the CPA were exempted from having to pay any tax.

Armenia

  • – A former self-declared independent state heavily populated by Armenians, it was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers controlled the Lachin corridor that allowed traffic to reach Armenia, on which it was heavily dependent.

China

  • – The de facto independent Wa State in Myanmar is considered a puppet state linked to China.

Russia

  • is considered a puppet state that is dependent on Russia. The economy of Abkhazia is heavily integrated with Russia and uses the Russian ruble as its currency. About half of Abkhazia's state budget is financed with aid money from Russia. Most Abkhazians have Russian passports. Russia maintains a 3,500-strong force in Abkhazia with its headquarters in Gudauta, a former Soviet military base on the Black Sea coast and the borders of Abkhazia are protected by Russian paratroopers.
  • has declared independence but its ability to maintain independence is solely based on Russian troops deployed on its territory. As South Ossetia is landlocked between Russia and Georgia, from which it seceded, it has relied on Russia for economic and logistical support, as all of its exports and imports and air and road traffic is only with Russia. Former President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity claimed he would like South Ossetia eventually to become a part of the Russian Federation through reunification with North Ossetia.
  • The and the were self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine following the fallout from the Euromaidan protests and widely considered to be Russian puppet states. Russia annexed the DPR and LPR on September 30, 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • , a conservative holdover of pro-Soviet forces from the Transnistria War, is considered a puppet state sponsored by Russia.

Turkey

Israel

India

In Yemen

Iran

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates