Geography
How Buffer States Emerge from Geopolitical Power Vacuums
Quick fact
Many of today's buffer states, like Afghanistan or Nepal, were never colonized directly, but their modern borders were largely shaped by the rivalries of the British and Russian empires in the 19th century.
Why this is interesting
You've heard of countries like Ukraine or Afghanistan being called 'buffer states'—but why do these nations exist at all? What makes a strip of land become a geopolitical cushion rather than a battleground?