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A proxy war is a war where two powers use third parties as a supplement or a substitute for fighting each other directly.Proxy wars were common in the Cold War as the two nuclear-armed superpowers ( Soviet Union and the United States of America) did not wish to fight each other directly, which ran the risk of escalation to a nuclear war. Proxies were used in conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Vietnam and many other states.
While the superpowers have used whole governments as proxies, terrorist groups or other third parties are more often employed. It is hoped that these groups can strike an opponent without leading to full-scale war. Iran has used Hezbollah to this purpose to hit Israel and Pakistan has long used armed groups to advance its cause in Kashmir without going to war against India.
Proxy wars have also been fought alongside full-scale conflicts. During the Iran-Iraq War both nations armed factions in the Lebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War was a bloody and complex conflict that raged in Lebanon from 1975 until 1990. During the era between independence and the 1970s Lebanon was viewed as a paragon of post-colonial success. It was the wealthiest state in the region, had and pitted them against each other, for instance.
It is almost impossible to have a pure proxy war as the groups fighting for another power have their own interests, which are often divergent from those of their patron. For instance after the Soviet_invasion_of_AfghanistanThe Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a 10-year war which wreaked incredible havoc and destruction on Afghanistan. The 'shooting' war is generally held to have started December 24, 1979. Soviet troops ultimately withdrew from the area between May 15, 198 the groups the United States had been backing quickly turned and became the nucleus of the TalibanThe Taliban ( Pashtun: "students of Islam"), also transliterated as Taleban is an Islamist movement which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, despite having diplomatic recognition from only three countries (the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and al-Qaida.
A famous proxy war was the Spanish Civil WarTeruel, east of Madrid. For an article about the 1820-1823 civil war in Spain, see: Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823 The Spanish Civil War ( 1936 1939) was the result of complex political differences between the Republicans — supporters of the government of t that saw an internal conflict become a battle between fascismBenito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo , capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. The name comes from fascia which may mea and communismThis article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. For issues regarding the organization of the communist movement, see the Communist party article. For issues regarding one-par as GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east, Italy and the Soviet Union poured resources and advisors into the country. This proxy war served as a useful proving ground for the great powers to test equipment and tactics that would later be employed in the Second World War.
Types of war
