[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Quite the opposite. The proper use of the term is to describe states dependent on the export of a single commodity to provide the money to prop up a nearly sham government - the original example being the various governments of Honduras bought by the United Fruit Company in the 1890s and 1900s. Being completely export dependent and foreign dominated these are anything *but* insular.

However those types of governments are "insular" in the sense that no one has ambitions outside the local factional politics with the exception of relations to local foreigners. There is simply not enough resources available to make ambition practical. In a banana republic the quarrel between generalissimo X and the Y liberation front or the Z drug cartel are far more important then familiar old-fashioned Great Power politics. Foreigners are important insofar as they are in country or nearby or directly related to the economy. But one cannot picture them dreaming of eating a whole continent in a gulp and if they tried they will be whacked without anyone thinking about it.