The Return to Attrition: Warfare in the Late Nation-State Era
Abstract
War of annihilation seeks the complete prostration of the enemy in unconditional surrender. War of attrition is a more circumscribed form that uses various tools, from battle, to maneuver, to other elements of national power, to exhaust the enemy in to acquiescence. Less clear-cut and rapid, this form has often been necessary in history when state power has been limited or adversaries have refused to come into open annihilatory battle. This form of war is difficult to embrace, especially for America, where both the public and the national security community are predisposed to rapid and decisive victories, massing technological and economic advantages against enemy weaknesses to bring a clear-cut resolution to conflict. Americans desire their conflicts to be "a championship boxing match, fought in plain view at high noon and settled by a knockout punch." Unfortunately, the reality of warfare in many ages has often been more like "a thousand separate wrestling matches, fought in the dark and won by tripping the opponent." American defense officials must come to terms, first, with the nature of this era and the constraints that it will place on warfare. In the first and second sections below, the effects of previous ages on warfare will be laid out and the characteristics of the current age will be defined. Stemming from this analysis, defense planners must prepare themselves to confront the likely threats of the coming century with strategies suited to the conditions at hand. In the third section, I will discuss the looming threats and likely sources of conflict over the next 50 to 100 years and will broadly sketch how the American military establishment must be prepared to pursue policy ends through uncomfortable strategies of attrition. Critical adjustments must be made in the defense establishment in order to be prepared for the challenges presented by such strategies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA519819
Entities
People
- Peter Munson
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School