Abbas Farasoo is a researcher at La Trobe University

'Scholarships on proxy warfare focus on the strategic intentions of principal actors in an international structure and the nature of proxy ties. The actor-centric approach ignores the procedures and processes of proxy wars and their impact on the target state, which Abbas Farasoo discusses in detail in his book Proxy War in Afghanistan: The Politics of State-wrecking. The author argues that military and logistical support to proxy actors and their lack of dependency on popular civilian support influence the bargaining power of both the principal and proxy actors ...an important addition by an indigenous scholar on the failure of international state-building in Afghanistan, which focuses on the external factors of this failure.' Strategic Analysis

• Introduction1 Proxy wars and target states2 The complex context of proxy war in Afghanistan3 Pakistan–Taliban relations from 2001 to 20144 The politics and procedure of violence in proxy war5 Challenges to the state’s territorial control6 Proxy war diplomacy and political bargainingConclusion