proxy war

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an armed conflict in which two or more major powers support opposing sides without directly engaging each other in open combat, using third-party states, armed groups, or non-state actors as instruments of their strategic competition; proxy wars allow great powers to pursue geopolitical objectives, test weapons and tactics, and impose costs on rivals while maintaining plausible deniability and avoiding the catastrophic risks of direct confrontation; the Cold War produced numerous proxy conflicts across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and the pattern has continued in Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine in the twenty-first century