Proxy War in Afghanistan: The Politics of State-wrecking
Research on the failure of International State Building in Afghanistan focuses on counter-insurgency, the internal dynamics of the conflict and political legitimacy, ethnic and tribal conflict, identity politics and social discrimination, political elite networks and patronage politics, and external dimensions of the conflict, including the role of Pakistan, regional power conflicts, and great power politics (pp. 4–6). Scholarships on proxy warfare focus on the strategic intentions of principal actors in an international structure and the nature of proxy ties. The actor-centric approach ignores the procedures and processes of proxy wars and their impact on the target state, which Abbas Farasoo discusses in detail in his book Proxy War in Afghanistan: The Politics of State-wrecking. The author argues that military and logistical support to proxy actors and their lack of dependency on popular civilian support influence the bargaining power of both the principal and proxy actors (pp. 32–34). Farasoo defines proxy war as including the delegation of conflict to a rebel actor or non-state actor, which may be one or two, support of external actor in terms of finances, military, training equipment, sanctuary, and existence of reciprocal relationship of cooperation and coordination between proxy and external [principal] actor (p. 9).
- Navneet Khan |
- May-June 2026 |
