Understanding the New Proxy Wars : Battlegrounds and Strategies Reshaping the Greater Middle East

## Abstract Proxy warfare will shape the conflicts of the twenty-first century for the foreseeable future. Yet the popular understanding of proxy wars remains largely shaped by the experience of the Cold War. In reality, in the Greater Middle East and its periphery today, the growing power of regional states and non-state actors, combined with the proliferation of new technology, has reshaped proxy conflicts, in an increasingly multipolar and interconnected environment. In this collected volume, a range of researchers examine what constitutes proxy warfare and provide new insight into how these wars are waged, in contexts stretching from Ukraine to North Africa and Syria to Afghanistan. The volume draws upon research, surveys and interviews conducted in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine, as well as examining the propaganda output of those involved in these countries' wars. In doing so, Understanding the New Proxy Wars helps reveal both the continuities and the differences between recent conflicts and those of times past. Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures and Tables About the Editors and Contributors Introduction Part I: Proxy Warfare in the Early Twenty-First Century 1. Twenty-First-Century Proxy Warfare: Candace Rondeaux and David Sterman 2. Syria 2011–19: Lessons for US Proxy Warfare: Nate Rosenblatt and David Kilcullen Part II: Battlegrounds 3. Social Networks, Class, and the Syrian Proxy War: Anand Gopal and Jeremy Hodge 4. How Raqqa Became the Capital of ISIS: Nate Rosenblatt and David Kilcullen 5. ‘This War is Out of Our Hands’: Libya’s Internationalized Conflict Since 2011: Frederic Wehrey 6. The Proxy Air Wars Over Libya: Melissa Salyk-Virk 7. The View from the City of Taiz: Limitations of the Proxy War Lens for Understanding Conflict in Yemen: Adam Baron and Raiman Al-Hamdani Part III: Strategies 8. Decoding the Wagner Group: Candace Rondeaux 9. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the 2020s: Evaluating Iran’s Proxy Warfare Strategy: Alex Vatanka 10. The Monarchs’ Pawns? Gulf State Proxy Warfare 2011–Today: Alexandra Stark Acknowledgments Notes Index Back Cover "Proxy warfare will shape the conflicts of the twenty-first century for the foreseeable future. Yet the popular understanding of proxy wars remains largely shaped by the experience of the Cold War. In reality, in the Greater Middle East and its periphery today, the growing power of regional states and non-state actors, combined with the proliferation of new technology, has reshaped proxy conflicts, in an increasingly multipolar and interconnected environment. In this collected volume, a range of researchers examine what constitutes proxy warfare and provide new insight into how these wars are waged, in contexts stretching from Ukraine to North Africa and Syria to Afghanistan. The volume draws upon research, surveys and interviews conducted in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine, as well as examining the propaganda output of those involved in these countries' wars. In doing so, Understanding the New Proxy Wars helps reveal both the continuities and the differences between recent conflicts and those of times past."--Publisher description