Proxy War Ethics: The Norms of Partnering in Great Power Competition

“At a time when proxy wars are being fought across the globe, this book should be required reading for senior military and national security officials. Professor Pfaff, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Just War, gives us a fresh and indispensable guide to the ethics and legality of proxy wars and how they fit into the long tradition of Just War. He also provides a much-needed blueprint for the containment and resolution of such conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East.”

–Michael Hirsh, Columnist, Foreign Policy Magazine

“Professor Pfaff's book brings clarity and rigor to an increasingly important feature of international relations: states' use of proxies to achieve indirectly what they prefer not to do directly.  It makes a crucial contribution to the normative analysis of international competition by carefully identifying the potential moral harms and hazards of this type of relationship.  In an era in which many conflicts feature hostilities between proxies, this book is an essential guide to understanding their nature and complexity.” 

--Mitt Regan, McDevitt Professor of Jurisprudence, Georgetown University Law Center

"Tony Pfaff's excellent book examines the ethics of an increasingly important aspect of warfare:  supporting proxies who do the actual fighting and dying to accomplish their national objectives while furthering their sponsor's interests.  Highly recommended for those who care about keeping America both safe and morally strong."

--Dr. John Nagl, Professor Warfighting Studies, US Army War College, and author of Eating Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya to Vietnam

Proxies can effectively transfer risk and lower the costs of international competition; however, they set conditions for moral failure and hazard. Applying the framework of the Just War Tradition, this book addresses how international actors can address those challenges and establish ethical and effective security relationships.

DR. C. Anthony Pfaff (Colonel, U.S. Army, Ret.) is the research professor for Strategy, the Military Profession and Ethics at the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, a Senior Non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a Distinguished Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy.