Description
Book SynopsisThis book illuminates on the US strategy of proxy warfare in modern times with the Syrian Civil War as a case study. Spyridon Plakoudas and Wojtek Michnik fuse modern history with international relations and strategic studies in order to offer an up-to-date and critical analysis of this unique partnership between a state (USA) and a non-state actor (Syrian Kurds) against another non-state actor (ISIS) - amidst the wider Syrian civil war. They argue that this partnership ended up as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it defeated ISIS at a minimum cost in money and blood in comparison to the Iraq War, but, on the other hand, it ensnared the USA into a tangled web of competition and conflict with other powers with no easy way-out. In other words, proxy warfare may prove a not-so-cheap investment in the end.
Trade ReviewThe continuing U.S.-Syrian Kurdish proxy warfare on the cheap against ISIS, Iran, and Syria plus involvement of Russia and Turkey, among others, is an important subject that deserves this richly documented analysis. Recommended.
-- Michael M. Gunter, Tennessee Tech University
Proxy Warfare on the Cheap offers a detailed look at a strategic partnership that for a short period of time took center stage in the Syrian war. As policy-makers are now increasingly focused on the resurgence of great power competition, be it in Europe or Asia, Plakoudas and Michnik remind us that understanding small wars, insurgencies, and hybrid conflicts is still critical.
-- Jean-Loup Samaan, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Chapter I: Why the Kurds? Why Syria?
Chapter II: The USA and Proxy Wars: From the Cold War to the Present
Chapter III.: The Obama Administration and Proxy Warfare in Syria
Chapter IV.: The Trump Administration and Proxy Warfare in Syria
Chapter V: The Biden Presidency and the Syrian Kurds: Wither Rojava?
Chapter VI: The USA – YPG/SDF Partnership: An Assessment
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Bibliography
About the Authors
