Using proxies in a conflict allows a major power to advance its strategic interests without engaging in a direct war. This approach reduces the risk of massive losses of life and resources. It can also limit the potential for a nuclear confrontation. In addition, it can allow a country to gain influence in a region or over a smaller state. It can even provide an opportunity to test new weapons or military strategies.
Yet proxy wars are fraught with peril. They can lead to broader regional conflicts, as exemplified by the Syrian conflict, in which Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States supported different factions. They can lead to local conflicts that cause death, displacement and suffering for civilians. They can also create a long-lasting political and military dictatorship that violates the intervening state’s democratic values and morals.
Keeping the spigot on cash and arms open to a surrogate also reduces the incentive for it to use diplomacy or enter into peace negotiations. Moreover, when a sponsoring country talks up its proxies’ “heroic” nature and their cause, it creates vested interests in continuing the fight, making it hard to pull out of a conflict.