This book is a primer for understanding the complex military environment and the unique stressors that the soldiers and their family undergo. It also helps us understand the coping resources available to the soldier to reduce unwanted stress and the inbuilt resilience that he displays as a result of rigorous military training. As deployment of military is on the increase and non-military tasks also entrusted to the Armed Forces, critical resources are frittered away at the cost of training, the most important being the resource of time which truncates the training cycle, causing and spiralling into unwanted stress. The military is now often asked to do more with less and the demand-resource pendulum swings heavily in the wake of unrealistic demands placed on the military by those who have no understanding of its functioning. As such, stress levels are bound to increase, impairing performance and adversely impacting morale of the forces. 

The book is an assortment of chapters from experienced military psychologists who bolster our understanding of stress and its dimensions, coping resources and resilience in the military and other enhancers of military performance. It identifies evolutionary views on combat stress, reviews the typical stressors experienced by soldiers, including those experienced on the battlefield, and provides an overview of selected research into the psychosocial and health costs of serving in combat and operational conditions.

Other interesting themes in the book discuss Army Resilience Training to improve quality of leadership and increase overall performance on one hand, and, on the other hand, to reduce the dropout rate of officer cadets from training institutions due to psychological reasons and also examine how we can better take care of those who serve by building resilience across different domains. 

1. Rethinking Resilience and Related Coping Strategies Applied in the Military / Jacques J. Gouws

2. Soldiering and Globalisation / Merle Parmak

3. Stress in the Armed Forces: A Psychological Perspective / Samir Rawat

4. A Study of Stress Among Military Personnel / Samir Rawat

5. Stress, Coping Resources and Resilience among Military Children / Ghanishta Suri

6. Evolution of Views about Stress among Soldiers: Selected Views, Theories, and Research / Andrzej Piotrowski

7. Resilience Training for the Swiss Armed Forces on the Test Bench / Hubert Annen, Madlaina Niederhauser and Regula Züger

8. Strength for Service: Building Resilience Across Different Domains / Dana Lyon and Douglas Lindsay

Lt Col Dr Samir Rawat is a cognitive-behavioural trainer who uses an eclectic approach in teaching soft skills related to leadership and personality development, behaviour modification and counselling, besides conducting faculty development and training of trainers (TOT) for academic, military and corporate institutions. He is a psychologist and facilitator with extensive experience in strengthening intrapersonal and interpersonal skills among individuals and teams.

Dr Rawat has presented scores of psychology and human resource management papers in national and  international conferences. He has contributed extensively to military and academic journals of repute. His other published books are Military Psychology: International Perspectives, Military Psychology and Leadership Development and Cadet Diary: Psychology of Warrior Ethos and Cadet Leadership Development.

He has taught a diverse group of population ranging from police, military recruits, cadets, religious teachers, young officers from Armed Forces, civil services, commanding officers in Army and Admirals and their spouses in the Navy, Paramilitary Forces, Special Forces and psychologists as well as officers in friendly foreign countries.

With his solid, enriching experience of having served the nation in uniform,

Dr Rawat truly exemplifies the military philosophy of inspirational leadership through idealized influence. In a short span, this book has found its way as a textbook in National Defence Academies (NDA) and military training institutions in quite a few countries.