Cold War proxy wars were wars during the cold War that had the two countries involved in the cold war (America and USSR) fighting indirectly through the manipulation and use of lesser countries as the active participants.
The cold War proxy wars helped maintain world peace by taking the cold War games away from the two main countries (America and USSR). The pawn countries were used to settle disputes within these two countries and also to make major decisions.
The proxy wars helped achieve world peace by bearing the brunt of war, which could have been more dangerous and could have even gone nuclear had the two main nations eventually faced off.
Also, the use of these pawn countries threatened world peace no doubt; even though it was to a lesser degree because of the ripple effect the world face whenever two lesser but important countries go to war, especially on international trade.
