(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book. Current versions are at book contents).
Governments can conduct a proxy war against another country by fomenting revolution or helping resistance fighters, including terrorists.
Of all covert foreign attempts to overthrow a government, perhaps the 1953 CIA-assisted coup in Iran is perhaps the most notorious. A Business Insider report, 64 years later, the CIA finally released details of the coup in Iran, described how Mohammad Mossadeq's democratically elected government was overthrown; he was replaced by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This coup permanently damaged relations between America and Iran.
There are also many less dramatic examples of one country trying to undermine another, by helping resistance fighters. For example, a BBC article, Who are Hezbollah?, describes how Iran supplies weapons to Hezbollah to help it to attack Israel from Lebanon.