Modern Technology. Human Warfare
Published May 5, 2025
Despite breakthroughs in military technology — from AI-powered drones to robotic warfare — history proves that victory is never just about machines. Believing in technology alone risks repeating some of history’s most costly mistakes. From ancient Greece to World War II to modern battlefields, it is human strategy, deception, and willpower that ultimately determine the outcome.
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The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
© 2025 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
Advanced drones, bomb disposal robots, and AI-powered weapons systems are being deployed all over the world. With these advancements comes the growing belief and hope that such innovations will one day eliminate the need for humans on the battlefield. While the latest military technology might reduce the number of needed boots on the ground, technological advancements have never been quite as revolutionary as they might first appear, and will never eliminate the human element of war.
After World War I, France built the infamous Maginot Line, a series of defensive fortresses built along its border with Germany. Designed to repel another German invasion and to compensate for manpower shortages following the Great War. The technological marvel was heavily fortified and reinforced with 55 million tons of steel.
It was designed to withstand heavy artillery, poison gas, and fend off an entire army. Despite this technological achievement, there was one flaw France hadn't accounted for. The wall stopped at their border with Belgium. The Germans seized on this and plowed through Belgium and Luxembourg and into France, capturing nearly 2 million prisoners of war.
The line was rendered useless, and France was conquered in six weeks. This type of pattern goes all the way back to ancient Greece. At the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, Persia sent an entire fleet of advanced trireme ships, outnumbering the Greeks by nearly 2 to 1. Despite the odds, however, the lighter and faster ships were destroyed easily after a simple bit of deception.
When King Xerxes received a message of surrender, he sailed his state-of-the-art fleet straight into an ambush and was defeated. Advancements in military technology may lead to fewer combat soldiers, fewer casualties, and perhaps more effective forms of combat. But there will always be another advancement to counter it.
The machine gun led to the tank, which led to combat planes, which led to radar, and so on, right up to the present. More importantly, every move and countermove often involves simple, old-fashioned human behavior. There might be greater distance between the humans engaged in war, but humans and human behavior will always dominate the battlefield.
Time after time, technological superiority has been defeated by human ingenuity, skill, and resolve, proving that if we give into the hype, the consequences may be deadly.