A
sphere of influence is a metaphorical region of political influences surrounding a country or a region of economic influence around an
urban area. It is also known as an SOI.
When a country falls into another's "sphere of influence" that country frequently becomes subsidiary to the more powerful one, operating as a
satellite state or de facto
colony.
For example, during the height of its existence, the Japanese Empire had quite a large sphere of influence, with the Japanese government influencing, or directly governing events in
Korea,
Manchuria,
Vietnam,
Taiwan, and parts of
China. The Japanese "sphere of influence" could thus be quite easily drawn on a map of the Pacific Ocean as a large "bubble" surrounding the islands of Japan and the Asian nations it controlled.
During the
Cold War,
Western Europe,
Japan, and
South Korea were often said to lie under the sphere of influence of the
United States, while
Eastern Europe,
North Korea,
Cuba,
Vietnam, and (until the
Sino-Soviet split) the
People's Republic of China were said to lie under the sphere of influence of the
Soviet Union.
Sometimes portions of a single country can fall into two distinct spheres of influence. In the colonial era the
buffer states of
Iran and
Thailand, lying between the empires of
Britain/
Russia and Britain/
France respectively, were divided between the spheres of influence of the imperial
powers. Likewise, after
World War II,
Germany was divided into four occupation zones, which later consolidated into
West Germany and
East Germany, the former a member of
NATO and the latter a member of the
Warsaw Pact.
See also
Disambiguation
Category:Sociology
Category:Political theories
Category:International relations
zh:勢力範圍