The protagonists fought their wars by proxy: about a third of conflicts from 1950 to 1990 were connected to cold-war rivalry.

冷战的主角们通过代理人来打仗：从1950年到1990年，约1/3的冲突都和冷战双方的对抗有关。

youdao

Since the country's independence in 1956, successive weak governments in Sudan have used tribe-based militias to fight proxy wars.

NPR: Sudan Fighting Surges Anew as Rains Stop

In Asia, too, the proxy wars were over, but the thawing of the cold one still brought big changes.

ECONOMIST: Welcome to the new world disorder

The Bush administration refused to confront the fact that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are to a large degree Iranian proxy wars.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Rocking Obama's world