Webinar – Proxy wars: strategic competition and irregular warfare in the 21st century
On January 22nd (5:00-6:30pm CET) the online seminar will take place, titled Proxy wars: strategic competition and irregular warfare in the 21st century. The event is organized by the Department of International Organizations and Global Security Studies of the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences.
Since the end of World War II, proxy warfare has become a dominant form of the conflict. From great powers avoiding nuclear confrontation during the Cold War, to lesser powers with regional ambitions in the complex, post-Arab Spring Middle East, states have frequently turned to proxy warfare to avoid escalation risks and costs of direct conflict. But proxy wars incur many hazards for the sponsors and proxies alike. Sponsors often struggle to control their partners and proxy wars still carry significant costs, whereas conflict delegation rarely delivers strategic breakthrough. As to proxies, they deal with overbearing or fickle sponsors and may suffer devastating loss of local legitimacy or international opprobrium for the provenance of received assistance. Given these drawbacks, why is proxy warfare nonetheless ubiquitous? Why do state and non-state actors outsource violence when they know proxy war is likely to yield a less than ideal outcome? Why do proxies seek out and accept their help?
List of participants:
Moderator:
Reference – Routledge Handbook of Proxy Wars, 2023, Edited By Assaf Moghadam, Vladimir Rauta , Michel Wyss.
Registration to the event via the Google form.