was defused, but the situation had highlighted Cuba’s role as a Soviet satellite in the
Western Hemisphere, and how the role of such client states could quickly disrupt
the balance of power between the two superpowers.
In the post-Cold War era, there are few countries that may be identified as sat-
ellite states in the same way as the examples given above. A handful of states are
closely aligned with a more powerful neighbor, and a case may be made that these
countries represent satellite states in the contemporary context. Some commenta-
tors have argued, for example, that Belarus for much of the post-Soviet period
has functioned as a satellite of Russia, due to its dependency on energy supplies
from its large neighbor and its consistent and vigorous support of Russian foreign
policy positions. The small country of Bhutan, situated in the Himalaya, could be
considered a satellite of India until 2007, when a new treaty redefined the relation-
ship between them, asserting Bhutan’s independence in crafting foreign policy.
However, a case might still be made that Bhutan, due to its almost complete eco-
nomic dependence on India and its close and consistent support of the policies of
the Indian government, remains in fact a satellite of New Delhi. A final example
of a contemporary satellite state might be Lebanon, a country long under the influ-
ence of its more powerful neighbor, Syria. Both countries emerged from the
French Mandate established after World War I, but Syria in recent decades has
played a major role in Lebanon’s politics, both directly and through proxies like
the Islamic extremist organization Hezbollah.Scale
The term “scale” can have several meanings in a geographical context. In a precise
usage incartography, scale refers to the proportional relationship between space
represented on amapand that which occurs in reality. Scale is an important con-
sideration when constructing a map, because the level of detail displayed on the
map will change with the scale, and some features that are evident at one scale
may disappear from view at another. There are several possible ways to indicate
the scale of a map, which is often shown in the map legend. A verbal scale is
expressed as a simple statement: “one inch equals ten miles,” which of course can-
not be taken literally. This sentence means that one inch of distance on the map is
theequivalentof ten miles in the real world. This is a commonly used scale on
road atlases, as it is easily understood even by those with little knowledge of car-
tography, and makes the approximation of simple distances on the map quite easy.
The verbal scale may be accompanied by a bar scale, which appears as a graphic
representation, typically a small bar with intervals marked off indicating a specific296 Scale