Proxy War Research Articles

Neorealist Yaklaşımdan Vekalet Savaşlarının Analizi; Suriye Krizi Örneği

Bu çalışmanın amacı son dönemde yükselen bir tartışma olarak vekalet savaşlarını ve Suriye Krizi’ni uluslararası ilişkilerin neorealist perspektifinden analiz etmektir. Vekalet savaşlarının tipik örneklerinden birisinin yaşandığı Suriye Ortadoğu’nun en kozmopolit ülkelerinden birisidir ve Arap Baharı’nın etkilediği en stratejik aktörler arasındadır. Metodolojik anlamda örnek olay olarak Suriye Krizi’nin seçilmesi dinamiklerinin bu çalışmaya uygun olması ile ilgilidir. Sonuç olarak çalışma, aktörlerin doğal bir reaksiyon olarak Suriye’de çatışma içinde olduğunu göstermektedir. Bunun sebebi uluslararası alanın sistematik bozukluklarından ve diplomasinin evriminden kaynaklanmaktadır. Suriye Krizi uluslararası ilişkiler açısından, devletlerarası sistemsel değişikliklerin sürekli olacağını da ortaya koymuştur.

COVID-19 media reporting in Taiwan: A proxy war over foreign relations?

COVID-19 media reporting in Taiwan: A proxy war over foreign relations?

Wojny zastępcze – próba konceptualizacji

Proxy wars are a phenomenon widely encountered in the history of armed conflicts. The character and particularity of a proxy war is not determined by direct warfare but by the orchestration of a military conflict serving the political needs of a third state without its direct involvement. This orchestration may assume a variety of forms, and the scale and specifics of each case are determined by the third party’s aims and interests. The category of proxy wars is known in Polish strategic studies, although so far not much attention has been paid to it. This article is an attempt to fill this gap. The main research problem undertaken by the author is to answer the question of what characterises the phenomenon of proxy wars. To answer this question, the author has formulated the following specific problems: 1) what are the definitional frameworks of the phenomenon of proxy wars? 2) what are the strategic goals of waging a war by proxy? 3) what are the forms of the external orchestration of a conflict?

COVID-19 AND CIVIL WARS IN THE ARAB WORLD: THE CASES OF SYRIA, LIBYA AND YEMEN

The post-Arab Spring period witnessed the outbreak of devastating civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen. These wars had many disastrous impacts on these countries, which threatened their existence as political entities. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the problems facing these countries, especially in light of the collapse of their infrastructure and health care systems. In spite of this, the pandemic and its consequences did not mitigate these civil wars. In this context, this article aims to answer the following question: Why do civil wars continue in the Arab world, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and its disastrous consequences? In other words, why didn't the pandemic create a new dynamic that pushes for the settlement of the civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen? The article provides five reasons to explain this phenomenon. First, the worsening situation in Syria, Libya, and Yemen before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to civil wars in these countries turning into protracted conflicts. Second, the nature of the civil wars as proxy wars, due to the large number of regional and international actors that have been involved in each of them. Third, the expansion of war economies in these countries; this phenomenon feeds civil conflict and sustains it. Fourth, the disintegration of the nation state in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, due to the absence of a strong central government, and the multiplicity of actors that control the state's territory. Fifth, the inefficiency of the means to peacefully settle Arab civil wars, mainly through the political efforts of the United Nations.

The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991

The Communist Party of Saudi Arabia was a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist party that existed from 1975 until the early 1990s. Its roots lay in the labor movement of the 1950s in the oil-producing Eastern Province. The history of this province is a hitherto almost unknown aspect of modern Saudi history, Arab Marxism, and the broader Cold War. The Saudi Communist Party helped to launch an uprising in 1979 in the Eastern Province and was particularly active in propagating its ideas throughout the 1980s as the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia fought a proxy war in Afghanistan. Despite opposing the monarchy's use of Islam as a tool of legitimacy and a propaganda instrument against Communism in the Cold War, the party called for a common front with Islamic groups opposed to the monarchy at home. After the dissolution of the party in 1991, former party members became key actors in the reformist petitions of 1990–1991, 2003, and 2011. This article is based on fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, interviews with veteran leftists from the region, and hitherto unexamined primary sources in Arabic, German, and English, including party publications and archival sources.

Framers, founders, and reformers: Three generations of proxy war research

ABSTRACT The rapid expansion of the proxy war literature invites an examination of its advances and developments. This article’s aims are threefold. First, to assess proxy war literature with a view to understand how it has progressed knowledge. Second, to map the field’s effort to cumulate knowledge. Third, to think creatively about the future directions of this research agenda as it addresses a problem no longer at the periphery of contemporary security debates. This article proposes a novel categorization of the evolution of our thinking about proxy wars across three “generations”: founders, framers, and reformers. Following on from this, it provides an assessment of the literature’s assumptions in order to show what remains, or not, under-studied. In doing so, it makes a case for a historiography of the idea of “proxy war,” and one for embedding strategy in analyses of wars by proxy.

Ocular trauma in counter insurgency and proxy war environment: Epidemiological study, 1992–2004

BackgroundTo analyze the epidemiology of hospitalized ocular injuries occurring in counter insurgency and proxy war environment in a forward area of northern India over a period of 13 years. MethodsRetrospective observational study of medical records was performed of 458 patients with ocular injuries primarily treated at zonal referral hospital of Indian Army between January 1992 and December 2004. ResultsA total of 559 eyes with ocular injuries were studied. The average age of the victims was 30 years. In 77% cases, injuries were sustained by army personnel and remaining by paramilitary forces. Of all cases, 86.5% cases were due to combat-related (militant action), of which 93.9% cases were caused by splinters from munitions. Among the eyes injured due to militant action, 60.36% were open globe injuries, 31.19% were closed globe injuries and 8.45% were isolated adnexal injuries. Among the eyes injured, 76.33% of the eyes with open globe injuries owing to militant action had perforating injuries, whereas in closed globe injuries, 47.74% eyes had corneal foreign body. Among eyes with open globe injuries, Corneo-scleral, scleral and corneal lacerations were seen in 45%, 28% and 27% eyes respectively. 15.75% of eyes with ocular injuries underwent eviscerations. ConclusionThe study reveals that splinter eye injuries from munitions were the most common cause of ocular morbidity in counter insurgency and proxy war. Implementation of use of protective glasses by the personnel deployed in such hostile environment and strict compliance of preventive measures would be effective in saving eyes and also medical and economic resources.

INVESTIGATING THE POLITICAL FACTORS OF AFGHAN MIGRATION

The purpose of this article is to determine the factors that have contributed to the migration of Afghans will be reviewed what conditions do Afghans have to migrate to other countries? In this paper, both descriptive and analytical methods used data collected from scientific books and international papers use and the immigration department Afghanistan has been collected.One of the most important factors in migration is war. More than three decades of war, insecurity, violence, and immigration have continued in Afghanistan. When immigration movement in the recent case examined Afghanistan, have with highest numbers of immigrants resulting in the melting of human resources. The spirit of tragedy young force it to leave the country. Due to security issues are characteristic of Afghan migration have been political, security, social continuation of the war has caused, the foundation of economic, political, and cultural has made it difficult ethnic differences. Continue targeted killings the lack of political stability in the country distrust for bright future, intensifying the war it can be said to affect migration, the most problems of people’s threat and increasing numbers of Taliban. ISIS and al-Qaeda with internal and external networks it was supported anti-human activity on the other proxy war between the countries in the region interests. They are held in common in Afghanistan, because of the complexity of the situation it has become security and politics in the country decrease government sovereignty, security threats massacre of people, the air result attacks, suicide blast, kidnapping this has been going on for several years. That made people's optimism for a stable future unlikely. These are all factors that affect the migration of Afghanistan is the second largest immigrant country after Syria.

An Analysis of the Application of International Humanitarian Law to the Armed Conflicts Arising from Operation Peace Spring

This thesis investigates the application of IHL to the armed conflicts arising from Operation Peace Spring, which was launched by Turkey in October 2019, in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava, in northern Syria. The aim of the thesis is to fill the gap in the existing literature which discusses extensively the allegations of war crimes committed by Turkey and its proxy forces during Operation Peace Spring, without addressing the question of application of IHL, although the latter is a conditio sine qua non for the existence of war crimes. The research concludes that OPS initiated three main armed conflicts, which classify as transnational armed conflict, international armed conflict and belligerent occupation and that IHL governs the conduct of the parties to these hostilities. Such conclusions have important consequences for the protection of civilians, combatants and POWs during OPS, as well as a significant impact on the prospects of prosecution of the alleged war crimes. Based on the conclusions drawn in this thesis, it is recommendable to conduct future research on the assessment of the relevant conduct as war crimes and the prospects of state accountability for the wrongdoing of individuals acting on Turkey’s behalf.

‘Ground Hog Da Din’ for the Sikh insurgency?

ABSTRACT Between 1978 and 1992, Sikh militants rampaged across the northern Indian state of the Punjab demanding that a homeland for Sikhs, called Khalistan, be carved from that state. The so-called Khalistanis, with Pakistan’s extensive support, waged a brutal campaign of violence that killed tens of thousands. While Indian security forces eviscerated the various Khalistani groups by 1992, support for the movement remained strong in pockets of the global Sikh diaspora. Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, also worked to keep the movement alive wherever possible. Pakistan’s efforts have paid off: in recent years, the Khalistan movement has rehabilitated itself even within India. We constructed a novel dataset of Khalistani terror incidents perpetrated in the last decade. These data demonstrate the revivification of Khalistani terrorism, with perduring support from the ISI, which has engineered connections among Khalistani activists, militants operating in Kashmir, and narcotics traffickers. We argue that the renaissance of Khalistan is part of Pakistan’s strategy to wage proxy warfare under its nuclear umbrella as a substitution strategy for its use of Islamist proxies, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has become more constrained by international pressure.

'Ground Hog Da Din' for The Sikh Insurgency?

Between 1978 and 1992, Sikh militants rampaged across the northern Indian state of the Punjab demanding that a homeland for Sikhs, called Khalistan, be carved from that state. The so-called Khalistanis, with Pakistan’s extensive support, waged a brutal campaign of violence that killed tens of thousands. While Indian security forces eviscerated the various Khalistani groups by 1992, support for the movement remained strong in pockets of the global Sikh diaspora. Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, also worked to keep the movement alive wherever possible. Pakistan’s efforts have paid off: in recent years, the Khalistan movement has rehabilitated itself even within India. We constructed a novel dataset of Khalistani terror incidents perpetrated in the last decade. These data demonstrate the revivification of Khalistani terrorism, with perduring support from the ISI, which has engineered connections among Khalistani activists, militants operating in Kashmir, and narcotics traffickers. We argue that the renaissance of Khalistan is part of Pakistan’s strategy to wage proxy warfare under its nuclear umbrella as a substitution strategy for its use of Islamist proxies, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has become more constrained by international pressure.

Bipolar Rivalry in the Early Digital Age

Abstract The year 2019 saw the curtain rise on a US–China bipolar rivalry quite different from the Cold War US–Soviet bipolarity. The fundamental difference between the current bipolar rivalry and that during the Cold War is that ideology is no longer the main engine driving international competition, but rather the new digital dimension of strategic competition that is emerging between the United States and China. Technological advancement over the past 15 years has led world history’s entry into the early digital age. The development of digital technology has created new ways of protecting national security, of accumulating national wealth, and of obtaining international support. Cybersecurity is becoming the core of national security and the share of digital economy in major powers’ gross domestic product dramatically increases. For the leading powers, strategic competition in cyberspace in this early digital age outstrips to a crucial extent that within physical geographic boundaries. This article observes that Cold War mentality and digital mentality will have mixed impact on foreign policy-making in the digital age, and that interactions between the nations whose foreign policy is simultaneously influenced by both mentalities will shape the emerging international order into one of uneasy peace, where there is no direct war and few proxy wars. It will rather be a scenario reflecting the dark side of globalization and downside of global governance, evident in the violation of agreements, double dealing, cyber-attacks, and technology decoupling between states. Although further digital advancement will indeed change international politics in ever more aspects, US–China bipolar configuration will nevertheless remain in place for at least for two decades, or perhaps longer.

Russia's Foreign Policy Towards Syria A Post Arab Spring Study

Russia has always played an active role in the world politics. Under the Administration of Vladimir Putin, Russia is determined to achieve its pride as one of the major powers again. The Arab Spring resulted in various Civil and Proxy Wars in the middle east, the Republic of Syria is one of them that suffered. On the request of Bashar -al Assad Russia intervened in Syria. The decision of intervention in Syria played an important role for the Russian politics on International Stage. Despite the presence of U.S and other factors, Russia assisted the Bashar al-Assad for various reasons. Russia admires the geopolitical importance of its only all Syria in the middle east. In do so Moscow halted all the opposition to succeed in Syria. Russia‟s policy for Syria proved to be a reemergence policy in the global politics for Russia.

Russian geopolitical objectives in the current oil price crisis, and implications for Canada

Following the end of unsuccessful negotiations in March 2020 at OPEC headquarters in Vienna regarding oil production cuts, in the early March in Vienna (headquarters of OPEC), Russia and Saudi Arabia de-facto launched a prise war that resulted in a significant drop in oil prices (just as the COVID pandemic caused a concomitant drop in demand for oil), which in turn led to earthquake on the global oil market. As a result, prices of oil that plays an essential role for economies of both countries have plummeted to record lows no seen in two decades. While suffering economic losses, both countries, nevertheless, maintain an assertive posture and seem willing to pursue this policy even further. This paper examines the geopolitical logic of the Russian side – a country that has been placed under western economic sanctions since 2014 as a result of its illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilizing steps via proxy forces in the Southeastern Ukraine – and consequences thereof, particularly for Canada, as the price of Western Canada Select reached historic lows amidst a COVID-19 induced economic contraction.

'Innate Nature' and 'Complete Nature': The Catholic Natural Family Planning Program and the Competition of Natural Methods in Mid-1970s Korea.

This article reviews the competition of two natural family planning methods in the mid-1970s when the Catholic Natural Family Planning program was underway in Korea. The Catholic Church, emphasizing the natural law, has recommended Natural Family Planning (NFP), a method of regulating childbirth by abstinence during the fertile period, since the mid-twentieth century. However, a group of gynecologists working at St. Mary's Hospital, a Catholic general hospital in Korea, questioned the utility of NFP. As an alternative, they proposed the method of Ovulation Regulation (OR), which regulates the menstrual cycle by inducing ovulation with steroids agents. This seemed to be no different than contraception with oral contraceptives disapproved of by the Catholic Church, but many doctors who advocated OR thought that this could be a new 'natural' family planning method to replace NFP. What is noteworthy here is the fact that not only NFP advocates, but also OR advocates attempted to justify their methods based on the authority of the 'nature.' In the debate over natural family planning methods, nature's legitimacy was given premise, not the object of doubt. Rather, the issue was the definition of nature. First, 'nature' in NFP signifies 'innate nature,' which excludes human intervention. According to this point of view, OR with steroids agents could not be natural. On the contrary, a group of doctors who advocated OR considered nature 'primal completeness.' If the natural order of the menstrual cycle could be restored, the artificial intervention of the administration of steroids was not a problem. Thus, both groups defended their arguments by redefining nature, rather than raising an issue of nature itself. The competition between 'innate nature' and 'complete nature,' a proxy war between NFP and OR, resulted in the victory of the former as the meaning of nature became fixed. Advocates of NFP pointed out that OR inhibits other physiological functions in the process of inducing ovulation, suggesting that the idea of 'complete nature' could never be achieved. The meaning of nature could no longer be controversial. Since the intervention was unnatural, nature meant innateness, the absence of intervention. Accordingly, the Catholic Bishops of Korea approved the Billings Method, a kind of the NFP, as the official family planning method, and gynecologists at St. Mary's Hospital of Korea also focused on the development and supplementation of the Billings Method. In short, the debate over the methods of natural family planning in mid1970s Korea was a clash of 'innate nature' and 'complete nature.' As a result, this confirmed the limitations of medical practice and reconfirmed the power of magisterium, the church's authority over medical practice.

Michael Walzer’s Humanitarian Intervention Theory Applied to Multisided Conflicts: A Discussion of Intervention and Self-Determination in the Syrian Civil War

Humanitarian interventions have often been employed to promote the intervener’s political and economic interests. Given the issues around intervention’s morality, this article explores Michael Walzer’s humanitarian intervention theory in order to unravel the practical difficulties of legitimating humanitarian interventions in multisided conflicts. After exploring Walzer’s arguments as they relate to unilateral and multilateral interventions, this article explains why, according to the self-determination principle, intervening countries must share the victim’s cause. Later, the article uses the Syrian Civil War to exemplify the conundrum of crafting a legitimate humanitarian intervention in multisided conflicts where the victims are internally divided and have opposing political, economic, and/or religious views. This case study evidences how, in such contexts, humanitarian interventions simultaneously protect the population and promote the group that best represents the intervening state’s interests, thus turning internal conflicts into foreign proxy wars. Finally, the article argues that, despite Walzer’s proposal for a consistent theory of unilateral and multilateral humanitarian interventions, unilateral interventions should be replaced in multisided conflicts by multilateral interventions able to halt atrocities and provide a stable solution for internal conflicts.

The Ethiopia-Eritrea Peace Talk and Normalization of Relations: Implication for Sub-Regional Security

This study attempts at shedding light on the security implication of the current Ethio-Eritrea new peace prospect and normalization of relations in the Horn of Africa. The study employed qualitative research approach. To realize the stated objective, the study largely focused at using secondary data sources, from which published and unpublished materials like books articles, reports, commentaries and agreements were reviewed and well consulted. To substantiate documented sources, the study used the analysis of experts and researchers presented on different media in the form of interview or focused discussion on the issue under investigation. The researcher herein argues that the ongoing diplomatic efforts to mend the decades of political impasse and hostility between Ethiopia and Eritrea can bring massive ramification in the process of ensuring peace in the Horn of Africa. In the first place, the recurring diplomatic rapprochement between the two foes can bring to an end the protracted acts of mutual destabilization and proxy war thereby address conflicts that have regional dimensions, as explained in terms of the intervention of Ethiopia on the side of transitional federal government t(TFG) of Somalia whereas Eritrea aligned with dissident groups fighting transitional federal government The other far reaching implication of the peace talk and normalization of Ethio-Eritrea relations is the opening of favorable grounds and platform for Eritrea-Somalia and Eritrea-Djibouti governments to reconcile antipathies and resume diplomatic ties. Equally important, prioritization of diplomatic discussion manifest the rethinking of how ineffective is the culture of militarism in the resolution of various irreconcilabilities, given the longstanding reliance of the two people on guns and violence. Thereafter, the new peace prospect pursued by these countries also widen opportunities for strengthening formative regional cooperation and integrations schemes in security, energy, tourism, transports, road and trade. Keywords : Eritrea; Ethiopia; Horn of Africa; Normalization; Security. DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/63-01 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

The New Old Imperialism in the Arabian Peninsula

Abstract This essay argues that the horrific war in Yemen (2015–present) waged by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Houthis who control the northern part of the country is not really a Sunni-Schi’a conflict or a proxy war against Iran or a replay of the Cold War—all of which have been put forward to explain it—but rather is better understood as the actions of belligerent imperialist powers located in the Arabian Peninsula, acting in their own right (rather than as puppets of Western powers). Such an explanation, however, flies in the face of what we have understood imperialism to be historically. This essay looks at two understandings of imperialism, one coming out of Marxist theory and another out of a Foucauldian understanding of power as developed by Hardt and Negri in their book Empire (2000), and then goes on to show that both are helpful, though in different ways, in explaining the Yemen war as an imperialist intervention.

Geopolitics of Religion: How Does Religion Influence International Relations and States’ Foreign Policies?

Undoubtedly, religion is one of the main factors that increasingly contribute to the shaping of international relations. As it was in the European middle ages, religion and geopolitics have always had ties of one sort or another. Imperialism and nationalist doctrines have found purpose and justification in religious differences and, religious zealotry was functioned to be both cause and consequence of the concentration of state power and the rivalries among existing competitors. The involvement of numerous religious groups and movements in the political scene led the situation to be extremely complicated. The purpose of this article is to see to what extent religion as a soft power has a role in forming international politics. Also, to discuss the role the superpowers and regional powers play in dealing with the question of religious issues. With an argument that these issues including religious conflicts are led by international and regional powers which function these groups in a proxy war to be part of their rivalry overpower, and to achieve their national interests through their foreign policies at the cost of considerable environmental degradation and a massive death toll of people.

Aliens Intervention in the State Conflict in International Law (Study of the Engagement of America, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran in the Arab Spring Conflict)

Various conflicts experienced by the state are denied or there are no interventions from other countries both on a large and small scale, either directly or indirectly. Interventions have the meaning of dictatorial interference by a country against other countries’ internal affairs. This has caused controversy because it is contrary to the principle of state sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in international law. The practice of intervention that is happening now is one of the conversations by the community. The validity of the intervention of other countries is one of them sticking out in the Arab Spring conflict, where Saudi Arabia and Iran make Syria an arena for proxy war where opponents of strength use third parties instead of fighting directly with each other. Saudi Arabia openly supports the opposition in the form of finance, a tool of war. On the other hand, Iran totally supports Bashar al-Assad with financial assistance, weapons of war and sends military forces. This paper analyzes how the position of foreign country intervention in a country's conflict in the study of international law. This paper focuses on the Syrian conflict, the Arab Spring where in the study of international law, intervention is seen as a state effort, and this paper analyzes the legitimacy of the state to carry out such interventions.