Suzerainty
From Wikipedia:
[…] a relationship in which one state or other polity controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. The dominant state is called the “suzerain”.
This seems to be a fairly historical term. There doesn’t seem to be many of these situations in existence now.
“Suzerain” is vaguely related to “sovereign.” It traces back to the Latin for “up” and “ward.”
Why I Looked It Up
In a book about the oil industry:
The transition was now complete from the days when the companies had unilaterally set the price, to the days when the exporters had at least obtained a veto, to the jointly negotiated prices, to this new assumption of sole suzerainty by the exporters.
In this case, oil exporters decided to raise the price of oil to the larger market, without consulting the oil companies. They effectively controlled how the oil companies related to the outside world.
Update
In a book about networks:
[Hussein bin Ali] suspected [the Germans] of plotting to depose him and end his Hashemite family’s suzerainty over the Hejaz.
Links to this –
Vassal State
December 26, 2022
This is exact opposite of a Suzerainty . A vassal state is the subservient/smaller state in a mutually obligatory political relationship. When a smaller, weaker nation cozies up to a larger, more powerful nation, it’s termed a vassal state, much like vassals were subjects of a kingdom’s power and...
Links from this –
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
August 30, 2021
This is the definitive history of oil, from the first discovery in the 1850s through the first Gulf War of of the 1990s. It’s a lot – 900-some-odd pages. Not for the faint of heart. I actually brought back in college in the mid-90s, and never finished it. I promised myself I’d get back to it, and...
Links from this –
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
December 5, 2021
The basic gist of this book is that the world is made up of (1) hierarchies, like governments and corporations; and (2) networks, like terror networks, the Freemasons, and old college buddies. We tend to think that power resides in hierarchical networks, but often the power is in the networks....