Lt Col Joseph O. Chapa

AI For The Rest of Us: Understanding the Technology That’s Shaping Our World

In a world of cheap, ubiquitous sensors and global data-collection, the fog of war will proliferate throughout the battlespace, not as a fog that settles through sparseness, but more like the mist the rises from the waterfall. It is the torrent that creates the fog. The crushing river of data will make it hard to see and hard to know. The promise of AI in war is that it will help commanders to aggregate data; to derive insights from inputs; and make sense from the sensors. But this is possible only if we implement AI wisely. As you will see in this book and throughout the history of deep neural networks, machine learning unwisely implemented can lead us to overconfidence and unintended consequences. AI is not a solution to this fog of war problem—it is only a potential solution. Whether we can actualize it depends on the prudence with which we employ it.

[Joseph O. Chapa / 2026 / 220 pages / ISBN 978-1-58566-340-8 / AU Press Code: B-194 / Format: Print & Electronic]

• “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Military Ethics,” in The Future of Air and Space Power: Intersection of Theory and Technology, edited by Heather Venable (Air Univ. Press, 2025)
• “Remotely Piloted Aircraft and War in the Public Relations Domain” The Air and Space Power Journal, vol. 28, no. 5 (September-October, 2014): 29-46.
• “The Ethics of Remotely Piloted Aircraft” The Air and Space Power Journal – Spanish Language Edition, vol. 25, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 23-33 (published in Spanish).
• Review: Andrew J. Bacevich, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country. New York: Metropolitan Books: 2013. Air and Space Power Journal, vol. 28, no. 6 (November-December, 2014)

Books

• Is Remote Warfare Moral? Weighing Issues of Life and Death From 7,000 Miles, PublicAffairs Books (July 2022).

Peer Reviewed Articles

• “Military AI Ethics,” Journal of Military Ethics vol. 23, no. 3-4 (2024)
• “The Ethics of Continuing Harm,” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (November 2023)
• “The Ethics of Signaling in War,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (March 2023)
• “Artificial Intelligence and The Just War Proportionality Principle,” Existenz vol. 17, no. 2 (special issue on AI in warfare, Spring 2022)
• Introduction to “Just War Traditions and Revisions,” The International Journal of Ethical Leadership vol. 1, no. 4 (Summer 2021): 212-222. The introduction of this paper was published in English, French, and Spanish as part of the Inamori International Thesis Prize in Military Ethics
• “The Martial Virtues: A Role Morality for Soldiers?” Social Theory and Practice vol. 44, no. 2 (April 2018): 179-198.
• “Remotely Piloted Aircraft, Risk, and Killing as Sacrifice: The Cost of Remote Warfare” The Journal of Military Ethics vol. 16, no. 3-4 (March 2018): 256-271.
• “The Responsibility Threshold for Military Officership,” The Journal of Character and Leadership Development: Occasional Paper Series vol. 1, no. 1 (August 2018).
• “The Just Warrior Ethos: A Response to Colonel Riza” (co-authored with Dave Blair) The Journal of Military Ethics vol. 15, no. 3 (November 2016): 170-186.
• “Developing Character at The Frontier of Human Knowledge” (co-authored with Brad DeWees) The Journal of Character and Leadership Integration, vol. 3, no. 2 (Winter 2016): 74-85.

Book Chapters:

• “Humans and Hardware: An Exploration of Blended Tactical Workflows using John Boyd’s OODA Loop,” co-authored with Dave Blair, Scott Cuomo, and Jules Hurst, in The Conduct of War, edited by Tim Sweys and Martijn Kitzen (Routledge: March 2021)
• “Human Judgment in Remote Warfare,” in Conceptualising Remote Warfare, edited by Alasdair McKay, Abigail Watson, and Megan Karlshøj-Pedersen (E-IR: February 2021)
• “The Ethics of Remote Weapons: Reapers, Red Herrings, and a Real Problem” in One Nation Under Drones, edited by John Jackson (Naval Institute Press, Dec 2018)

Selected Public Engagement Publications

• “Human-Machine Planning: AI Lessons From The Marine Command and Staff College” (co-authored with Sofia Cantu), War on The Rocks (Oct 2025)
• “How Much Human Oversight of Autonomous Weapons Systems Is Necessary?” Providence Magazine (Nov 2024)
• “Legal Reviews of AI-Enabled Targeting Systems: A Military Necessity,” Journal of Christian Legal Thought vol. 14, no. 2 (Oct 2024)
• “Please Stop Saying ‘Human In-The-Loop,’” Institute for Future Conflict (3 Sept 2024)
• “The Next Frontier? Philosophy in Space” The New York Times (5 Apr 2024)
• “Trust and Tech: AI Education in The Military” War on The Rocks (Mar 2021)

• ABC News Interview on Is Remote Warfare Moral?
• MSNBC Interview on Is Remote Warfare Moral?
• USAF Public Affairs coverage of Chapa on AI Ethics
• ACC Public Affairs coverage of Chapa on AI Ethics
• Practice of the Practice Podcast: Joe Chapa on Moral Philosophy and Just War Theory in Military Trauma

• REVIEW: Christopher Kuennen, Joint Force Quarterly vol. 108, no. 1 (2023)
• REVIEW: Christopher J. Coyne, The Independent Review vol. 28, no. 1 (2023)
• REVIEW: Christine Sixta Rinehart, Real Clear Defense (7 Aug 2023)
• REVIEW: Naval War College Review vol. 77 no. 2 (2024)
• Stephen L. Carter, “Best Nonfiction of 2022: Great Books That Will Make You Think,” Bloomberg (25 Dec 2022)