Counter-terrorism via proxies? How the U.S. defeated ISIS in Syria

Is the use of proxies in counter-terrorism effective? The campaign against ISIS in Syria may offer an answer. In 2017, the U.S. captured the capital of ISIS in Syria after a 3-year war. This swift and cheap victory, however, was owed chiefly to the sacrifices of their proxies – the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – and contrasted the failed proxy war against Assad. This paper will examine this campaign to understand how this combating terrorism proxy campaign differed from the ‘traditional’ U.S. proxy wars and why it succeeded despite the numerous challenges. This paper will enrich the current debate about the U.S. combating terrorism strategies, proxy warfare as a counterterrorism tool and shed light on the current U.S. policy challenges in Syria.