Proxy warfare is a growing international phenomenon. Although states have used proxies in armed conflicts for centuries, evolving regional and global security architecture is now forcing states to radically change the way contemporary conflicts are fought.

Based on ten case studies, this reassesses exactly how these changing global and systemic factors are shaping the ways in which states use non-state actors as proxies in their armed conflicts.

Examining the use of proxy warfare worldwide, focusing on the last decade's conflicts, this volume brings together contributions from scholars of international relations and global security studies in order to explore cases of armed conflict of particular regional and global significance. These include recent developments in the conflict in Israel and Palestine, the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, Central Asia, Syria, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Brazil and Yemen. By drawing on both theory and practise, it offers a re-evaluation of contemporary understanding of "outsourced warfare", with policy implications for how we understand and negotiate with states using proxy warfare in the future.

Cüneyt Gürer is Professor of Transnational Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies where his research focuses on transnational security issues, regional security dynamics, human displacement, and non-state actors in contemporary conflicts.

Cyprian Aleksander Kozera is an expert at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre "Identity, Dialogue, Security" at the University of Warsaw, researcher in the Africa Research Institute, at Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary, and a member of the Polish Africanist Society. His research focuses on irregular and proxy warfare in Sub-Saharan Africa and he is a member of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies' Network.

Pawel Bernat is Senior Lecturer at the Polish Air Force University where his research focuses on proxy and hybrid warfare and the militarization of outer space. He is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal Safety & Defense, and Vice-President of the Andarta Knowledge for Security Foundation.