From civil war to proxy war: past history and current dilemmas

Abstract

The use of surrogate or ‘proxy’ actors within the context of ‘irregular’ or guerrilla conflict within or between states constitutes a phenomenon spanning nearly the whole of recorded human military history. Yet it is a phenomenon that has also acquired urgent contemporary relevance in the light of the general evolution of conflict in Ukraine and the current Middle East. This introduction to a special issue on the theme investigates some potentially important new avenues to studying the phenomenon in the light of these trends.

Keywords:

• Proxy wars
• irregular conflict
• Russian Civil War
• Lenin
• Iraq
• Syria
• Vietnam
• Afghanistan
• war economy
• European Union
• unintended consequences
• war on drugs
• war on terror

Notes

1. On these dynamics, see Hughes, ‘Syria and the Perils of Proxy Warfare’ and Thornton, ‘Problems with the Kurds’.

2. On the use of militias in Afghanistan during the Soviet era, see Giustozzi, ‘Auxiliary Irregular Forces’ and Marshall, ‘Managing Withdrawal’. On the ALP, see both Velbab-Brown in this issue, and at Brookings Institute, and Goodhand and Hakimi, ‘Counterinsurgency’.

3. For a sceptical approach towards the Treaty of Westphalia as a true turning point, see Teschke, The Myth of 1648. For a text that already points out the historical durability of local militias and paramilitary forces as significant conflict actors, see Ahrem, Proxy Actors.

4. On all of this, see for example Gleijeses, ‘Moscow’s Proxy?’ and his subsequent work Conflicting Missions and Visions of Freedom, alongside Westad, ‘Concerning the Situation in “A”’ and ‘The Soviet Union and Afghanistan’, 128–84, but see also Gibbs, ‘Reassessing Soviet Motives’. On ‘Operation Cyclone’, the American programme to covertly sponsor the Afghan mujahidin in Afghanistan, see Coll, Ghost Wars and Youssaf and Adkin, Afghanistan.

5. Spence, ‘Useful Brigand’, 18.

6. Ibid., 22.

7. Ibid., 32.

8. Meijer, The Trotsky Papers, 272–3.

9. Ibid., 278–9.

10. For a developed terminology on ‘counter-gangs’ and ‘pseudo-gangs’ within the framework of COIN (counterinsurgency) warfare, see Hughes and Tripodi, ‘Anatomy of a Surrogate’.

11. Brovkin, Behind the Front Lines, 342. On the Green movement in the North Caucasus at the time, see Marshall, The Caucasus under Soviet Rule, 157–60. On the Antonov movement, the most high-profile ‘Green’ band, see Landis, Bandits and Partisans.

12. See the article by Mark Galeotti in this issue.

13. Loginov, V.I. Lenin, 412.

14. On the ‘Banking Scheme’, see Occleshaw, Dances in Deep Shadows, 53–76.

15. Mumford, ‘Proxy Warfare and the Future of Conflict’, but see also Mumford, Proxy Warfare.

16. The other two characteristics in Kaldor’s account were a new ‘war economy’ and a new wave of ‘identity politics’ fed by cultural globalisation: Kaldor, New and Old Wars.

17. The Wikileaks Files, 139.

18. Le Billon, Wars of Plunder.

19. Reuter, Draining Development?, 1–2.

20. Schneider, ‘Money Laundering’, 1, 19–26.

21. Friman, Crime and the Global Political Economy, 4.

22. Goodhand, ‘Corrupting or Consolidating the Peace?’, 413, 415.

23. Shelley, ‘Islamic State is a Diversified Criminal Operation’.