Stalin's Proxy War against Japan, 1937–45: One Principal and Two Agents

This work analyzes Soviet policy towards the 1937–45 Sino-Japanese conflict as a proxy war. It adds to the literature on three counts. Firstly, this is a case where the principal had two agents in the same proxy war. Secondly, the two agents were bitter enemies that had previously fought a murderous civil war against each other. Finally, one gap in the literature is the lack of discussion of the use of a transnational ideological movement in motivating an agent to do the principal's bidding. This work shows that this is an effective means of controlling a proxy.