Iran s Support for Assad in Syria

Proxy Warfare

Proxy war is an armed conflict between two actors or states, fighting on the behalf of other parties who are not directly engaged in the armed conflict. Proxies are typically supported by the other parties via funding, arming, training, or some other form of assistance. Nicaragua is a key legal case that highlights the problems that can arise from proxy warfare. As Heckman (2017) points out: “In Nicaragua, the Court found that the United States was guilty of ‘training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying the contra forces’. It further found that the actions of the United States ‘in and against Nicaragua’ created an international armed conflict (IAC) between Nicaragua and the United States.”[footnoteRef:2] However, the Court also found that a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) was going on in the state of Nicaragua at the same time. Dinstein has also pointed out how incongruous such a ruling can be with reality: while “the mere supply of arms by a foreign State to the insurgents“ might not necessarily lead to an IAC type of situation, “there comes a point – for instance, when the weapons are accompanied by instructors training the rebels – at which the foreign State is deemed to be waging warfare against the local Government.”[footnoteRef:3] Proxy wars continue all around today, with the war in Ukraine serving as one example, and Iran’s proxy wars for expansion as another. Indeed, the war in Ukraine and Iran’s proxy wars can serve as modern case study examples of the problems of proxy war from a legal point of view. This paper aims to compare the Iranian proxy wars with the war in Ukraine to see how proxy war is defined and determined today. [2: Nicaragua, supra note 14, paras. 292(3)-(4)] [3: Dinstein, War, Aggression and Self-Defence, supra note 70, p. 10.]