Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective: Non-State Actors and Armed Conflict needs to be on the bookshelves at all military academies and special warfare centers across the world. The book advances the idea that definitions and understandings of proxy warfare from a bipolar era fail to explain the application of proxy warfare in modern conflict within a multipolar world. The authors provide recent definitions that seek to capture modern complexity while addressing the myriad of states’ motivations to engage in proxy warfare. This understanding is detailed through different international relations theories to explain proxy warfare. Together, this creates a contemporary, global perspective of states’ use of proxies in modern warfare.
The editors have assembled an accessible book comprising chapters for both practitioners and theorists of proxy warfare. Moreover, the book’s timeliness and relevance are underscored by the increasing prominence and complexity of proxy wars worldwide. In short, Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective is an essential resource for individuals engaged in and studying proxy warfare.
The book is divided into three parts with fifteen substantive chapters (in addition to an introduction and afterword). Part One examines the theoretical and historical framework for proxy warfare. This part seeks to conceptualize and explain proxy warfare. Part Two forms the majority of the book and includes current and relevant chapters spanning the Russia-Ukraine war, the war between Israel and Hamas, and other proxy wars across Africa and the Middle East. Part Three explores new paradigms in proxy wars by focusing on the role of transnational organized crime in these types of conflict.
All editors have military or law enforcement experience, which contributes to the book’s accessibility. The editors made a deliberate effort to ensure the book can be useful for the practitioner and contribute to the debates of proxy wars in a larger academic international relations arena. This discussion of the academic aspects is highlighted in the Introduction and Part One (Theoretical and Historical Framework) where the authors and editors clearly detail how previous definitions and traditional notions of proxy warfare do not fit the modern application of proxy wars. Authors then provide common terms and understandings prevalent throughout current literature on proxy warfare. The authors highlight how different degrees of involvement or support from principals (those orchestrating proxy warfare) can impact the amount of oversight, management, or responsibility principals may have over the proxy. Despite the complexity and comprehensiveness of these theories, the authors use plain language to make it readable, understandable, and beneficial to a multitude of readers no matter their level of understanding of the IR theories.
The book excels in Part Two, which contains several case studies divided by theater of armed conflict. These case studies provide distinctive understandings of the detailed application of proxy warfare in each unique situation. The case studies from Africa, the Middle East, and the European theaters are relevant, as they focus on conflicts within the last decade. However, the authors lack case studies from South and Latin America or the Indo-Pacific regions which make the book less comprehensive. Yet, theorists or practitioners in those regions can still glean an understanding of the intricacies of proxy warfare, setting them in their regional context. Also, this might open the door for another volume that explores the unique nature of proxy wars in these regions.
Part Three examines transnational criminal organizations and how they can work as proxies or disrupt a country’s foreign policy and security efforts. Nations have found advantages, at times, in supporting transnational organized criminal organizations. Part Three then provides some concluding remarks to summarize the current paradigm of proxy warfare, which includes criminal organizations.
The current nature of the research is one of the book’s successes. The authors cite studies and scholarship that have been published in the past year or two. This provides the reader with a valuable tool for exploring the current debates in proxy warfare among academic theorists.
While the book is an excellent primer, there are several questions that almost beg another volume. First, there needs to be a discussion on the ethics of a proxy war. What ethical deliberations do states make when involving themselves in a proxy war? Should states conduct proxy wars in the first place? Second, the editors could explore the perspectives of non-state actors on considerations when choosing a principal. The book does an excellent job of providing global perspectives of states, but it has limited engagement from the perspective of non-states, which are so active in the modern proxy war landscape. The absence of discussions of these topics does not take away from this book as a valuable contribution to the literature on proxy warfare. It just opens the door for future studies in this evolving world.
Just as they characterized the Cold War, proxy wars will be an important aspect of the global landscape for the foreseeable future. Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective provides a valuable contribution to proxy warfare academics and practitioners and is a good entry for those looking to understand the phenomenon. Whether it is in the classrooms of military academies and special warfare centers or on the nightstands of practitioners, this book deserves to be read.
J. David Thompson is a U.S. Army Civil Affairs officer. He is a Ph.D. Candidate at King’s College London researching the ethics of proxy warfare, and he holds a Juris Doctorate from Washington & Lee University School of Law. Outside of the military and academia, he has experience with Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, the World Bank, and the United Nations Refugee Agency. Follow him on Twitter / X @jdthompson910.
Main Image: Soviet advisory personnel and training staff planning military operations in Angola, late 1970s or early 1980s. (Photo by US Government Printing Office via Wikimedia and Public Domain)
Views expressed in this article solely reflect those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Irregular Warfare Initiative, Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, the Modern War Institute at West Point, or the United States Government.
If you value reading the Irregular Warfare Initiative, please consider supporting our work. And for the best gear, check out the IWI store for mugs, coasters, apparel, and other items.
Ryan Dresslar says
Excellent take on Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective, to include the critique that the piece should have included analysis on how actors select a principal. In a “new Cold War” where there are clear but stark differences in potential principals, we need to understand that partners have a vote and make sure we are positioned favorably.