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In political science, a proxy war is an armed conflict fought between two belligerents, wherein at least one of the belligerents, whether a state or a non-state actor,[citation needed] is supported by an external third-party power. In the term proxy war, a belligerent with external support is the proxy; both belligerents in a proxy war can be considered proxies if both are receiving foreign military aid from a third party country. Acting either as a nation-state government or as a conventional force, a proxy belligerent acts in behalf of a third-party state sponsor.[1]
A proxy war is characterised by a direct, long-term, geopolitical relationship between the third-party sponsor states and their client states and non-state clients,[2] thus the political sponsorship becomes military sponsorship when the third-party powers fund the soldiers and their matériel to equip the belligerent proxy-army to launch and fight and sustain a war to victory, and government power.[2]
The relationship between sponsors and proxies can be characterized by principal-agent problems whereby the sponsor may be unable to control the actions of the proxy.[3][4]
- ^ Osmańczyk, Jan Edmund (2002). Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Abingdon: Routledge Books. p. 1869. ISBN 978-0415939201.
- ^ a b Hughes, Geraint (2014). My Enemy's Enemy: Proxy Warfare in International Politics. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. pp. 5, 12–13. ISBN 978-1845196271.
- ^ Hughes, Geraint (2023). "Proxy Wars in History: A Longue Durée Perspective". Routledge Handbook of Proxy Wars.
- ^ Gaston, E. L. (2024). Illusions of control: dilemmas in managing U.S. proxy forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-21012-6.