proxy wars
Wars by surrogate
Proxy wars are conflicts where major powers support opposing sides without fighting each other directly.
During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union funded, armed, and advised rival factions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America rather than risk nuclear confrontation: Korea and Vietnam were proxy wars between superpowers.
The term implies that local combatants serve larger strategic interests.
- Iron CurtainCold War's political divide
- arms raceEscalating weapons accumulation between nations
- indirectNot straight or immediate
- Brezhnev DoctrineSoviet right to intervene
- insurgencyArmed uprising against authority
intervention · Warsaw Pact · sanctions · satellite states · puppet government · Ho Chi Minh Trail · clandestine · covert operations · surrogate · mujahideen · spheres of influence · conflict · military aid · arms deals · containment policy · guerrilla warfare · client states · CIA
- Middle EastIraq, Baghdad, Cairo, Iran, Jordan
- conflictsargument, fight, war, battle, dispute
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- foreign policydiplomacy, diplomatic negotiations, sanctions, containment, deterrence
- geopoliticsbalance of power, bipolarity, bloc, blocs, brinkmanship
- Cold War AsiaSoviet Union, North Korea, Vietnam, Korean War, Soviet-Afghan War
proxy warsconventional war
Armed conflict between states
total war · declared war · hot war · World War I · nuclear war
proxy warsdiplomacy
Negotiation between nations
diplomatic engagement · soft power · economic cooperation · trade agreements · treaty-making
proxy warspeace
Freedom from disturbance
alliance · entente · cooperation · partnership · rapprochement
proxy, wars, approximate, approximately, approximation, approximating, proximal, proxies, proxying