Is Remote Warfare Moral?
Weighing Issues of Life and Death from 7,000 Miles
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
America is at an important turning point. Remote warfare is not just a mainstay of post–9/11 wars, it is a harbinger of what lies ahead—a future of high-tech, artificial intelligence–enabled, and autonomous weapons systems that raise a host of new ethical questions. Most fundamentally, is remote warfare moral? And if so, why?
Joseph O. Chapa, with unique credentials as Air Force officer, Predator pilot, and doctorate in moral philosophy, serves as our guide to understanding this future, able to engage in both the language of military operations and the language of moral philosophy.
Through gripping accounts of remote pilots making life-and-death decisions and analysis of high-profile cases such as the killing of Iranian high government official General Qasem Soleimani, Chapa examines remote warfare within the context of the just war tradition, virtue, moral psychology, and moral responsibility. He develops the principles we should use to evaluate its morality, especially as pilots apply human judgment in morally complex combat situations. Moving on to the bigger picture, he examines how the morality of human decisions in remote war is situated within the broader moral context of US foreign policy and the future of warfare.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher and U.S. Air Force officer Chapa debuts with a nuanced if somewhat self-serving consideration of the ethical questions raised by the use of armed, remotely piloted aircraft. He pushes back against the notion that remote warfare is not "real warfare," pointing out that previous technological innovations, including the advent of submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles, have similarly "challenged standing conceptions and demanded that military operators, strategists, and policy makers modify old ways of thinking." He also claims that the concept of warfare as a "duel" between enemies who risk their lives on a field of battle is misleading; disputes the idea that drone pilots and crew members adopt a "PlayStation mentality" when operating their aircraft; and claims that while instances of PTSD among drone pilots "are not nearly as common as the Hollywood accounts would have us all believe," the prevalence of "moral injury," which is caused by "witness or participat in an event that transgresses deeply held beliefs about humanity," needs further study. Chapa's firsthand experience gives his philosophical conclusions weight, but he shies away from some of the bigger questions he raises about remote warfare, including whether it will encourage leaders to engage in "more wars more often." The result is a well-informed study whose takeaways feel preordained.
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