The Proxy Century

Why Small Wars Decide Big Empires

By: Viktor Romcev

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Paperback | 15 March 2026

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Paperback
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 1.3

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In every headline conflict, there is usually another war running in the shadows. States' arm movements, they do not admit to backing, deny casualties they quietly caused, and call disasters "local disputes" when everyone knows better. This book opens up that hidden layer, explaining why so many contests between great powers are now fought as proxy wars rather than open invasions.

Across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, cold war proxy conflicts, modern proxy conflicts, and small wars, big empires have quietly redrawn borders and strained treasuries. Drawing on strategy, economics, and political science, this book shows how hybrid warfare strategy actually works in practice, how patrons manage clients, and why seemingly cheap interventions so often spiral into expensive quagmires for both states and societies.

Written for policy watchers, journalists, and readers of security studies, it also speaks to anyone trying to understand the international relations of war without jargon or romanticism. You will see how private military companies fit into this ecosystem, how sanctions and covert money flows enable covert interventions book-style operations, and how to read today's crises with a clearer eye. By the end, you will know which questions to ask when the next conflict flares on your screen, which trade-offs leaders are trying to hide, and how ordinary people pay the price even when their country is not officially at war.

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