Hear me out on how to solve proxies:
If a country is annexed, it cannot have a government. Currently countries with no borders still have presidents, and depending on who owns the proxy they may never revolt. This lets massive empires stay stable and own tons of regions with no consequence.
To release an annexed country, a new country/designation called freedom fighters can be joined. Freedom fighters can revolt in any nation that's annexed, and when the nation is freed there's open borders and ONLY freedom fighters that participated in that revolt can take residency there and vote.
Freedom fighters would also be unable to participate in battles with nations, to make sure they can only revolt and people wouldn't just stay as freedom fighters indefinitely.
If a country has some of its regions but not all, then revolts work the same as now.
Help me brain storm bros, what should be improved/added to this concept? What have I missed?
Do you have ideas on how proxies can be tackled? Leave a comment and discuss.