Soldiers on International Missions

There and Back Again

Stéphanie Vincent Lyk-Jensen|Peder J. Pedersen

Emerald

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Hardback

9781789730326

24 July 2019

£67.99

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9781789730319

24 July 2019

£67.99

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9781789730333

24 July 2019

£67.99

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Description
Contents
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About

This book contributes important new insights into how deployment on international military missions affects soldiers and their lives. Using both quantitative data and in-depth interviews, the authors provide a longitudinal perspective covering the participants in these missions before, during, and after deployment on a large range of life outcomes. The research centres around four key themes; who are the men and women who choose to be deployed; why do they choose to be deployed; what challenges do these soldiers face before, during, and after returning home from a mission; and what are the consequences of deployment for the soldiers’ individual lives?

Danish soldiers provide an illustrative study and data is drawn from administrative registries and is supplemented with broader surveys of present and former soldiers, in-depth interviews of parents and other relatives, and support group professionals.

Using specifically constructed datasets and comparing these soldiers with relevant control groups, this book offers a unique analysis of the impact of deployment on important issues such as personal finances, the labour market, criminal activity, smoking and drinking, and overall health. Mapping a full portrait of the men and women who choose to be deployed, and explaining both their initial motivations, this book highlights the challenges they face before and during deployment and upon returning home.

Chapter 1. Summary of Contents Chapter 2. Overview of Data and Methods Chapter 3. Soldiers Before and During Deployments Chapter 4. Returning Home from an International Military Mission: An Investigation Based on Qualitative Interviews Chapter 5. Mission Experiences and Subsequent Careers: Survey-Based Analyses Chapter 6. Homecoming Soldiers: A 'Before-And-After' Analysis of Motivations, Financial Situation, and Criminality Chapter 7. Soldiers on International Missions: Mental Health Profile Before and After Deployment Chapter 8. Perspectives

The authors examine the experiences of Danish soldiers deployed on international missions, focusing on the characteristics of those who choose to be deployed; why they choose to be deployed; challenges they face before, during, and after returning home from a mission; and the impact of deployment on their lives. They use data from administrative registers, following 26,000 deployed soldiers over 18 years, from their pre-deployment lives to their experiences after returning home, as well as surveys and interviews. They describe statistics on the soldiers before their deployment, their path into and out of the military, social relationships and self-assessed health, and experiences during missions; whether the deployment has an independent effect on soldiers' motivation to volunteer for missions, their financial situation, and their criminal behavior; and key elements in their health profile before and after deployment, focusing on psychiatric diagnosis, the use of medication for psychological problems, work-related injuries, and mortality.
- Copyright 2019

Stéphanie Vincent Lyk-Jensen is Senior Researcher at VIVE - The Danish Center for Social Science Research, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Peder J. Pedersen is Professor Emeritus at Aarhus University, Denmark. Currently he is consultant at VIVE - The Danish Center for Social Science Research and Research Fellow at IZA, the Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany.