February 24, 2023

S3E8: History of Long Wars & Attrition Warfare. From Napoleon's Invasion of Russia to WWI, WWII & the Vietnam War and now... Ukraine, Year 2!

58 minutes

As the one-year anniversary of Ukraine's war with Russia approached this week, President Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine, and gave a rousing speech in Warsaw, doubling down on America's commitment to supporting Ukraine. The same day, President Putin gave his State of the Nation speech in Moscow, promising to double down on Russia's attacks on Ukraine with fresh troops and a new major offensive/

But this war may soon become more complicated still, because according to our Secretary of State Antony Blinken China is considering providing arms to Russia, and China's leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Putin soon.

As all of this fast-developing news comes at us against the backdrop of the slow grind of this war, and the inescapable realization is that this may be a long war. And as Russia pummels Ukrainian cities, civilians and infrastructure, the realization is setting in that far from decisive battles, this may become a war of attrition!

Clearly, Mr. Putin believes that he can bring Ukraine to its knees by basically attrition warfare. In this episode, you'll discover that, historically speaking, he is not alone - many autocracies and democracies engaged in attrition warfare with similar beliefs. Their successes and failures all depended on how they choreographed their resources, politics, peoples, and combined arms warfare.

But when does an armed conflict transition from decisive strategies and swift battles into long-drawn wars, in which attrition becomes the strategy? Has human history experienced more decisive wars or more wars of attrition? What is a prime example of attrition warfare? And what military strategies have had to be adopted for these long, grinding wars - these wars of attrition?

To better understand attrition warfare, I spoke with Dr. Sebastian Lukasik, a professor in the Department of Leadership and Research Development at Air Command and Staff College, in Air University, which is a professional military education university system of the United States Air Force, where Dr. Lukasik is the director of the ACSC In-Residence Electives Program.

To learn more about Dr. Lukasik, you can visit his academic homepage.

In addition, below are links to two fascinating episodes:

S2E16: Russian Reforms, Rebellions & Revolutions, Dr. Mark Steinberg

S3E6: History of Tank Warfare, Dr. Alaric Searle

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

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