Proxy Governance

Command and Control
Proxy governance is the establishment of dependent administrative structures through which a foreign state exercises effective control over territories and populations while maintaining the appearance of indigenous sovereignty, using local proxies to provide plausible deniability and political legitimacy.
Author
Affiliation

E. Rosalie Li

Information Epidemiology Lab

Published

February 17, 2026

Command and Control

Proxy governance is the establishment of dependent administrative structures through which a foreign state exercises effective control over territories and populations while maintaining the appearance of indigenous sovereignty, using local proxies to provide plausible deniability and political legitimacy.

FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
  author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
  title = {Proxy {Governance}},
  date = {2026-02-17},
  url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/proxy-governance.html},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “Proxy Governance,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/proxy-governance.html.