Från manöver till utnötning : En jämförande analys av Operation Anaconda och motoffensiven i Kharkiv 2022

Sammanfattning

This study examines why offensive ground operations that initially aims to achieve decisive victories through maneuver warfare often transitions into attritional warfare. Despite the modern ideal of maneuver’s superiority in western countries, contemporary conflicts repeatedly demonstrate patterns where maneuver fails and instead evolves to battles of attrition. This study applies Arreguín-Tofts theory of strategic interaction to analyze two cases: Operation Anaconda 2002 and the counteroffensive in Kharkiv 2022. Using a theory consuming comparative design, this study investigates how strategic interaction influences the shift between maneuver and attritional warfare in offensive ground operations. The findings indicate that the transition between maneuver and attrition can be understood by the strategic interaction between two opposing actors using opposite strategies. In both cases the interaction between the attacker’s and defender’s choice of strategy contributed to a more prolonged and attritional operation, despite differences in technology, geopolitical context and type of conflict. The results further suggests that the transition between maneuver and attrition in operations can be understood as a consequence of how actors adapt their strategies to each other rather than just a result of numerical strength, technology or doctrine.