Satellite state

While stumbled across a funny term while reading up on NATO on wiki today. what does satellite state sounds to you? Countries or nations that own satellites huh? Pandon my ignorance haha! Thats what i thought.

Well Satellite States basically refers to a country which is formally independent, but under heavy influence or control by another country. This term was used to refer to central and eastern European countries of the Warsaw pact during the cold war. While as 'deep' as it might sound, I think the Europeans really have a way to coin terms from a astronautical aspect. It simply refers to planets orbiting around the sun; sun being the country having hegemonic power over the other. The country may be strong in military powers and in economics as well, but under another country's political agenda. One such example is the relationships between the USA and Isreal.

Well along this funny term came a few others like puppet state which implies political and military dependence and neo-colony implies (abject) economic dependence.

References - Wikipedia