Speaker: Wright Smith, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Why do states conduct massed “human wave” attacks, when they are costly in human life and uncertain as a military tactic? In 2022 and 2023, many Western observers were horrified by Russia’s use of so-called “human wave” assaults during the Battle of Bakhmut, in which thousands of poorly trained fighters, often recruits by the mercenary Wagner Group from Russian prisons, were thrown in mass attacks to grind down Ukrainian lines. While many journalistic accounts suggested that these tactics were an archaic throwback to the early days of World War I, “human wave” tactics in fact have a long and brutal history in modern combat from the beginning of the age of industrialized warfare to the present.
This project seeks to develop a working definition of “human wave” tactics, to identify the conditions under which they can be successful, and to explain why states continue to turn to them even in the age of industrialized war. It specifically argues that these tactics are a brutal but fundamentally rational attempt by a state’s political and military leadership to solve the economic and political problems they face in fielding advanced modern armies, and while they are by no means a guarantee, they can help a state to achieve battlefield success.
Admittance is on a first come–first served basis. Tea and Coffee Provided.
