Definition of a Proxy War
- Proxy wars are defined in international relations as situations in which states supplies weapons and resources to conflicts in which they are not directly involved. This can also occur when one state supports an insurgency group in another state. This was a continuing problem in the late 2000s between Chad and Sudan, where each side supported rebel groups in their opponent's territory.
- Proxy wars can be useful if the initiating state fears the level of retaliation that an outright attack might draw. During the Cold War, proxy wars were fought between the United States and the Soviet Union because it was believed that any conventional war between the two forces would eventually go nuclear.
- If government leaders want to go to war, they have to prove their case to the public. This is because the public will bear most of the burden in the form of taxes and lives lost in the conflict. Unpopular wars are met with protests and angry voters. If leaders believe they won't be able to make their case, they can initiate a proxy war and achieve similar ends with a lower cost in terms of money and lives. As a result, the domestic population is less likely to resist government actions.
- Destabilizing an unfriendly government may also be the goal of a proxy war. If a state is afraid of its neighbor, it might initiate a proxy war by sending funds to rebellious groups within the neighboring state. Ideally, this will topple the neighboring government and the next leader will be more friendly to the state that initiated the proxy war.
- The best example of a proxy war involving the United States was the early stages of the Vietnam War. After World War II, the United States was following a policy of containment that sought to counter the influence of communism. Before the early 1960s, the United States was not directly involved in the Vietnam War. At first, it simply supplied money and weapons to South Vietnam to fight communist North Vietnam. At the time, North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. It was only in the mid-1960s that large numbers of U.S. troops were sent into the country, and the proxy war in Vietnam became a conventional one.