Proxy war
A
proxy war is a war where two powers use third parties as a supplement or a substitute for fighting each other directly.
Proxy wars were common in the
Cold War, because the two nuclear-armed superpowers (the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the
United States of America) did not wish to fight each other directly, since that would have run the risk of escalation to a
nuclear war. Proxies were used in conflicts in
Afghanistan,
Angola,
Korea,
Vietnam and many other states.
Since the end of the Cold War the largest war by proxy has been the
Second Congo War in which the governments of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Uganda and
Rwanda all used (and are perhaps still using) third party armed irregular groups.
While superpowers have sometimes used whole governments as proxies,
terrorist groups or other third parties are more often employed. It is hoped that these groups can strike an opponent without leading to full-scale war.
Pakistan has long used armed groups to advance its cause in
Kashmir without going to war against
India, for these groups are suspected widely to be trained in firearms and guerilla warfare, and Islamic radicalism. Where they infiltrate into Indian held Kashmir, to spite the locals, and fight blindly what to them is a freedom struggle.
Proxy wars have also been fought alongside full-scale conflicts. For instance during the
Iran-Iraq War both nations armed factions in the
Lebanese Civil War and pitted them against each other.
It is almost impossible to have a pure proxy war, as the groups fighting for a certain superpower usually have their own interests, which are often divergent from those of their patron. For instance, after the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the groups that the United States had been backing later turned against the U.S. and became the nucleus of the
Taliban and
al-Qaeda.
A famous conflict which exhibits patterns of a proxy war was the
Spanish Civil War that saw an internal political conflict become a battle between
fascism and
communism as
Nazi Germany and
Italy (on the fascist side) and the
Soviet Union (on the communist side) poured resources and advisors into Spain. This war served as a useful proving ground for the great powers to test equipment and tactics that would later be employed in the
Second World War.
*
COUNTER PROXY WAR,
September 11,
2001, by B.Raman,
South Asia Analysis Group*
Pakistan's Proxy War. by Narender Sehgal,
1992 [
1]
Utpal Publications/
Kashmir Information Network
