Bio
Kerry Chávez, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Institute for Future Conflict and an advisor for Irregular Warfare Initiative’s Air and Space Power focus area. Previously, she was a two-time nonresident research fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point and a nonresident research fellow at the Institute for Global Affairs. She is the chair of the Future Conflict Minor working group, and she designs and teaches courses on adversary doctrine and disruptive tech. She also oversees the IDE/ILE fellows and the nonresident research fellows programs at the IFC.
Dr. Chávez’s research centers on politics, strategies, and emerging technologies of warfare, especially unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, autonomy, and relevant enabling technologies. Her work bridges academic and practitioner communities, combining rigorous theory and mixed methods with policy-relevant analysis. She has two novel datasets. Military Operations with Novel Strategic Technologies in r (MONSTr) offers a comprehensive list of US military operations from 1989 to January 2021 featuring the means of force used, geocoded locations, combatant rosters, and information on structural dependencies between events within campaigns and wars. Her dataset on violent nonstate actor drone adoption has received international attention and is considered a cornerstone in understanding quantitative trends on this phenomenon. She has published widely and collaborates regularly in leading academic and policy venues, including multiple wings of NATO, the UN, intelligence agencies, the Global Counterterrorism Forum, and DARPA.
Education
PhD, Political Science, Texas Tech University, Texas (2022)
MA, Political Science, Texas Tech University, Texas (2017)
MLitt, International Security Studies, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (2011)
BA, Intercultural Studies, Biola University, Calif. (2009)
Professional Experience
Fox Assistant Professor, Institute for Future Conflict, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. (2026 – present)
Assistant Professor, Department of Military & Strategic Studies, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. (2024 – 2026)
Nonresident Research Fellow, Institute for Global Affairs, N.Y. (2024 – 2025)
Nonresident Research Fellow, Modern War Institute at West Point, N.Y. (2022 – 2024)
Instructor, Department of Political Science, Texas Tech University, Texas (2022 – 2024)
Projects Director, Peace, War, & Social Conflict Laboratory, Texas (2022 – 2024)
Research and Scholarly Interests
International security; innovation; politics, strategies, and emerging technologies (UxS, AI, autonomy, enabling tech) of warfare
Publications
Articles
2025. “Polls and Precision Strikes: Electoral Origins of High-tech Warfighting.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 55(4): e70014. (with J Andrés Gannon)
2024. “US Military Intervention and Presidential Framing.” Journal of Politics 86(4): forthcoming.
2023. “Emulating Underdogs: Tactical Drones in the Russia-Ukraine War.” Contemporary Security Policy 44(4): 592-605. (with Ori Swed)
2023. “A Wiki-based Dataset of Military Operations with Novel Strategic Technologies (MONSTr).” International Interactions: 639-688. (with J Andrés Gannon)
2023. “The Empirical Determinants of Violent Nonstate Actor Drone Adoption.” Armed Forces & Society: 1-30. (with Ori Swed)
2022. “International Crisis Termination and Presidential Approval.” Foreign Policy Analysis 18(3): 1-26. (with James Wright)
2022. “Conflict Contagion Via Weapons Proliferation Out of Collapsed States.” Small Wars & Insurgencies 35(2): 191-227. (with Ori Swed)
2021. “The Proliferation of Drones to Violent Nonstate Actors.” Defence Studies 21(1): 1-24. (with Ori Swed)
2020. “Off the Shelf: The Violent Nonstate Actor Drone Threat.” Air & Space Power Journal 34(3): 29-43. (with Ori Swed)
2020. “Domestic Political Consequences of International Rivalry.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 64(4): 703-728. (with Daehee Bak and Toby Rider)
Monographs and Chapters
2026 (forthcoming). “Autonomous Weapons.” In Oxford Handbook on Global Security and Change in Armed Conflict. Edited by Annette Idler and Kate Tkacova. Oxford University Press.
2026 (forthcoming). “Autonomous Warfare Applications.” In Military Strategy, Joint Operations, and Airpower, 3rd edition. Edited by Ryan Burke, Paul Bezerra, Mike Fowler, and Jon McPhilamy. Georgetown University Press. (with Jon McPhilamy)
2026 (forthcoming). “The Continuum of Competition.” In Military Strategy, Joint Operations, and Airpower, 3rd edition. Edited by Ryan Burke, Paul Bezerra, Mike Fowler, and Jon McPhilamy. Georgetown University Press.
2025. “The Future of Great Power Conflict.” In Expecting the Unexpected: Essays on Strategic Surprises in the 21st Century, 14-24. Edited by Max Margulies and Patrick Sullivan. New York: West Point Press.
2025. “Update – The Threat of Democratized Artificial Intelligence.” In The Political Economy of Robots. Edited by Ryan David Kiggins. Switzerland: Springer / Palgrave Macmillan. (with Ori Swed)
2024. “Violent Nonstate Exploitation of Commercial Drones.” In The De Gruyter Handbook on Drone Warfare. Edited by James Patton Rogers. (with Ori Swed)
2023. UAS in Urban Attacks: Red Teaming Exercise Report. Vienna, AT: weTHINK.
2021. “Between Scylla and Charybdis: The Threat of Democratized Artificial Intelligence.” In Towards an International Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence, 177-194. Edited by Tugrul Keskin and Ryan David Kiggins. Switzerland: Springer / Palgrave Macmillan. (with Ori Swed)
Policy Commentary
2025. “Unintended Recipients: The Dangers of Loose Weapons.” War on the Rocks. (with Ori Swed)
2025. “Momentum Toward Operational Expertise in the USAF.” Real Clear Defense.
2024. “Yesterday’s, Today’s, and Tomorrow’s Small Wars.” Small Wars Journal. (with Rick Newton)
2024. “Small Drones for Big Militaries: The Way Ahead.” War Room. (with Ori Swed)
2024. “A Case Study on Integrating Tactical Drones: Israel.” Modern War Institute. (with Ori Swed)
2023. “Uncovering the Hidden Logic of War: Data and the Meso-level of Armed Conflict.” Modern War Institute. (with J Andrés Gannon)
2023. “How Hamas Innovated with Drones to Operate Like an Army.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (with Ori Swed)
2023. “Hamstrung: Sources of and Solutions for Political-Military Mismatch.” Modern War Institute. (with J Andrés Gannon)
2023. “Learning on the Fly: Drones in the Russian-Ukrainian War.” Arms Control Today 53(1): 6-11.
2022. “Weak States and Loose Arms: Lessons and Warnings, From Afghanistan to Ukraine.” War on the Rocks. (with Ori Swed)
2020. “An Allegory of the Cave: Innovation and Terrorist Drones.” War Room. (with Ori Swed)