ABSTRACT
The development of the strategy of war by proxy or vicarious belligerency is the result not only of the invention of nuclear weapons and of the consequent need for the superpowers to avoid coming directly into conflict with each other. While the strategy of proxy war was being gradually developed in China, Spain and later in much of the Third World, alliance strategy has moved in precisely the opposite direction. Only the use of proxy war strategies has prevented post-1945 crises involving the superpowers in a major war. Arms transfers enable the United States to support Israel and the Soviet Union to arm the Arab states without becoming involved in the Middle East wars themselves. Volunteers in large numbers fought on the French side in the Franco-Prussian War. Democratic statesmen found the idea of establishing foreign military bases more acceptable after 1945 since many of their forces were already stationed in foreign countries.
