ABSTRACT
The notion of sovereignty exists to establish the legitimate exclusive jurisdiction in, and employment of, state institutions over a specific, delineated territory by a recognised government. The governments of developing countries are especially susceptible to such influences, reliant as they often are on aid, assistance and the vagaries of international trade. The United Nations (UN) also recognised the limits on absolute sovereignty in 2005 when it endorsed a doctrine entitled the Responsibility To Protect (R2P). Sovereignty has also been employed by states or people to claim the right of defence against what they perceive to be external interference, such as with matters of external criticism. A client state is one that is economically, politically or militarily subordinate to another, more powerful state within the wider realm of international relations. Oil-producing states have been at the forefront of such aggressive projection of patron-state interests, even if this was sometimes presented as being in the interests of the client state.
