ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses quantitative approaches to proxy war studies. It argues that these differ from qualitative approaches to proxy wars not only in the methodological framework they apply but also in their emphasis on the domestic sources of conflict, the agency of actors on the ground, and the role ascribed to direct military intervention. It presents main findings on the causes, configurations, and consequences of outside interference in armed conflicts derived from quantitative studies. Defining proxy wars as a subcategory of conflicts with external support, it traces the occurrence of proxy wars and other conflict configurations between 1975 and 2017 using quantitative data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program External Support Dataset. After introducing alternative datasets on outside interference in armed conflicts, it discusses some of the challenges associated with quantitative data before highlighting ways in which quantitative frameworks can improve on our concepts of proxy wars and open new avenues for research.
