Big powers use smaller powers to advance their interests, but sometimes the reverse of this may also be true

Former USA President Joe Biden famously said that if Israel did not exist already, the USA would need to invent it to protect or advance US interests in a crucial region. In fact, Biden repeated this a number of times.

The meaning of this is clear. As the center of the highest deposits of oil and gas and with its important geo-strategic positioning, the Middle East region is of very high importance for the USA and for its desire of world dominance, including resource dominance and dollar dominance. Hence the USA needs a permanently friendly country as a strong base for dominating the region. This country in order to fulfill this role must be highly militarized, must possess very destructive weapons and a very strong military and intelligence base. It is in this role that the USA has cast Israel, as seen from its perspective.

However the leaders of Israel are shrewd enough to see that once they are fulfilling such a useful role for the USA, then they can also use the leverage they get for their own objectives (which may or may not be shared by some or even most sections of the USA) such as getting more territory for Greater IsraelGreater IsraelA controversial ideological concept proposing the expansion of Israel’s borders to encompass historic biblical lands. and crushing those who stand in the way for this, or pursuing the destruction of those who are considered to be hostile to Israel within the region.

Israel’s shrewd leaders not only strive to use the undoubted military and diplomatic might of the USA for these objectives, they have gone a step ahead and helped to create a very powerful and resourceful Israeli lobby within the USA, the most powerful foreign lobby in the USA, which works overtime and with continuity to ensure that the USA continues to follow Israel’s priorities in the region, even when there is strong domestic criticism of this.

Thus the relationship is supposed to work both ways. The USA is trying to use Israel for its more durable objectives of dominating the region, while Israel often punches above its weight to make the USA serve its even more narrowly perceived and highly aggressive agenda in the region. In the process, a lot of tension and aggression are generated, and a lot of destruction and disruption are caused.

Big powers have often tried to use smaller countries to fight their wars against other countries, particularly against other big powers. The widespread prevalence of such proxy warsProxy WarAn armed conflict instigated by a major power which does not itself become involved directly, using third parties to fight on its behalf. is well-recognized. The USA has been involved in several proxy wars. Following the Russian invasion of 2022, the Ukraine War in its pre-Trump stage was widely known as a proxy war of the USA which used Ukraine to harm Russia as much as possible. Such wars are increasingly preferred by a great power like the USA as any loss of its own soldiers is avoided and so the chances of the public opinion at home turning against the war are significantly reduced.

However after the election of Trump as President of USA (he had promised early end of this war in his presidential campaign), the role of the USA as supporter of Ukraine’s war effort declined and this position was instead taken over by leading countries of Europe like Germany, UK and France. In recent times the military, intelligence and economic support of these European countries for Ukraine has become more and more significant so as to bring them ever closer to the possibilities of a more direct confrontation with Russia.

Like the USA, the European countries are also motivated by a similar desire of weakening and troubling Russia as much as possible without having to use their own soldiers. This may well be so but as in the case of Israel a possibility exists here also that the smaller power (in this case Ukraine) can also use the bigger European powers for its own objectives.

At a wider level in the world along with proxy wars of big powers a reverse trend has also been noticed and may play a big escalatory role in the near future under certain conditions. In such situations a smaller country or a client country may make efforts to involve a bigger country or even a great power supporting it in a wider war with the aim of serving its own narrow interests.

In the course of the Russia-Ukraine war at times it has been noticed that Ukraine’s regime has tried to take certain provocative measures which are likely to escalate the war in such ways that the higher involvement of the NATO member countries becomes more likely. This can be beneficial for the present regime of Ukraine at a time when it is suffering reverses. If bigger powers can be involved in this war as their own war, and not just a proxy war, then things become much bigger and it is possible for the regime to avoid the blame for any flaws or setbacks. Of course if the war becomes much wider and also more destructive then the actual harm suffered by the people of Ukraine is likely to be higher, but the stigma attached to a military defeat of Ukraine may be avoided by the regime and the support for the regime from the NATO member countries would be higher, thereby strengthening its position and international role.

To realize the full implications of this, it must be better known that there is increasing evidence of neo-Nazi elementsNeo-Nazi ElementsFar-right nationalist factions, such as the Azov Battalion, whose historical integration into Ukraine’s military has been a point of geopolitical controversy. and highly corrupt elements entrenching themselves in very powerful positions in the war-time regime of Ukraine (elections are overdue here). Given this reality, possibilities increase that some powerful ruling elites may take reckless decisions that go in the direction of a wider war bringing in NATO countries. Meanwhile in the middle-east Israel wants to somehow involve the USA in a wider war against its enemies. Hence in different contexts both Israel and Ukraine ruling elites may be pushing for wider wars, and this is a very dangerous situation.

It is already widely believed that the attack on Iran which started on February 28, 2026 was heavily influenced by Israel’s insistence on involving USA in a joint attack, and subsequent attempts at peace were repeatedly troubled by Israel’s disruptive actions in Lebanon. Involvement of the USA in a wider war is seen as a way out of many troubles by the present regime of Israel and its leaders who are entangled in a big mess of their own making. Despite all the destruction that a wider war is likely to bring, the regime sees the issue from a very narrow standpoint of finding a way out of the present mess and ending the war on a note of victory and glory as per its own badly distorted vision.

While planning for proxy wars to serve their narrowly conceived agenda, the big powers tend to use their proxies and clients in highly opportunistic ways to serve their self-interests, one of their frequent aims being to achieve strategic aims including bleeding an adversary without getting involved directly. However the possibility exists that proxies and clients in turn try to be opportunistic and try to get their big power backers involved in the war in a bigger way to serve their own narrow interests. Ukraine and Israel are two recent examples. If things work out their way, the big powers, despite trying to protect themselves, may get involved in very big and destructive wars which they did not plan for while engaging in their perceived smaller mischief.

The lesson emerging from these various possibilities is to stop trying to be too clever and to stop indulging in too many misadventures. In a dangerous world armed with too many destructive weapons and too many dangerous possibilities, all countries and particularly the big powers should at the very least avoid brinkmanship and dragging others into swamps that may ultimately endanger both of them.