MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Dr. Daniel Strand, Air University ethics chair and a professor of ethics at the Air War College, said leaders will continue to face questions that technology alone cannot answer as the Air Force adapts to emerging technologies and evolving operational demands.
Strand recently spoke during a professional development session supporting the Air Force Chaplain Corps College. His remarks focused on the role chaplains and religious affairs Airmen play in helping commanders, Airmen and Guardians develop the judgment, character and resilience needed for military service.
"Ethical leadership demands more than just rule compliance," Strand said. "The legal answer may not always be the moral and ethical answer."
Strand said military leaders often turn to legal guidance when they are faced with difficult situations. Legal guidance helps leaders understand what they are allowed to do. Ethical reasoning asks something different.
"Legal reasoning asks what am I allowed to do?" Strand said. "Ethical reasoning asks what is the right thing to do? One avoids violating a rule. The other upholds a value."
"That second question is often the harder, deeper and more consequential one," he said. "Doing the right thing is always more demanding than simply avoiding the wrong thing."
Strand said leaders may increasingly face situations where technology can provide information and options, but cannot determine the right course of action.
Strand said chaplains bring a perspective that complements legal and operational advice by helping leaders think through questions that do not always have clear answers.
"While other agencies provide essential guidance on regulations and policy, the chaplains bring something distinct," Strand said. "The ability to serve as a moral compass, illuminating the ethical dimensions of leadership and helping commanders navigate the gray areas that tactical guidance alone cannot resolve."
Religious affairs Airmen contribute in a different way, he said, often identifying concerns and pressures that leaders may not see firsthand.
"They often see the moral tensions, the value conflicts and the character-shaping pressures that commanders need to understand but rarely witness firsthand," he said.
Strand said those conversations are becoming more important as artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, drones and other technologies continue to influence military operations.
"Artificial intelligence, drones, cyber capabilities and other emerging technologies are dramatically changing the character of modern conflict," Strand said. "New technology always brings with it great promise along with great peril."
While technology continues to evolve, he said the responsibility for making decisions remains with people.
Strand also connected ethical readiness to resilience, saying preparation before conflict can influence how Airmen and Guardians process difficult experiences afterward.
"Airmen and guardians who are ethically prepared for the challenges of warfighting are able to recover and thrive better during and after combat," he said. "A big part of this resilience has to do with their ethical preparedness."
Strand said ethical readiness helps build the character and judgment Airmen need before they face the realities of military service.
Strand said preparing leaders to work through ethical questions before they encounter them in military operations is part of developing warfighters capable of making sound decisions under pressure.
He pointed to lessons from remotely piloted aircraft operations, noting that technology did not remove the human consequences associated with military operations.
"The initial belief was that drones would create distance and disconnection from the moral weight of killing," Strand said. "As we now know, after seeing the effects on drone pilots, it is exactly the opposite."
Looking ahead, Strand said chaplains and religious affairs Airmen should be thinking now about the environments they may be asked to operate in later.
He referenced former Air Force Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. Robert Taylor, who endured the Bataan Death March and spent years in internment camps during World War II while continuing to minister to fellow prisoners.
Drawing on that example, Strand said future conflicts could place chaplains and religious affairs Airmen in dispersed locations across the Indo-Pacific region, operating in austere environments with limited resources while continuing to support Airmen and Guardians.
He said chaplains and religious affairs Airmen can help strengthen readiness by encouraging Airmen and Guardians to think through ethical questions before they are faced with them during military operations.
"Have Airmen and Guardians thought through the ethically challenging aspects of warfighting?" Strand said. "Have they taken time to think about their own ethical concerns about warfighting?"
He said addressing those questions before conflict occurs can help strengthen resilience across the force.