Axis I disorders predispose the soldier to maladjustment under stress. The soldier who decompensates during the predeployment phase should be evaluated for fitness for further military duty. While consultation and education activities during the predeployment period reinforce healthy coping techniques, their hidden value rests in the underlying message that mental health professionals will be available to them throughout all phases of a mission. Deployment Stress, strain, and mental adjustment accompany combat, peacekeeping, and humanitarian military operations. While the severity of stressors encountered on peacekeeping operations are markedly less than those faced in combat, unclear rules of engagement and mission purpose, coupled with long periods of inactivity and frustrated aggression, introduce unique stressors which may degrade unit morale, increase interpersonal conflict, and lead to psychiatric disorder.
Soldiers serving on peacekeeping missions often face an ill-defined enemy.
Men and women whom the soldiers have been sent to protect may resent their presence and betray their trust. Lack of a clearly defined enemy and betrayal by local nationals may lead to cognitive dissonance, role confusion, and frustration. I to the Persian Gulf War have been incorporated into military doctrine. They also suggested that peacekeeping duties were attended by unique stressors related to managing aggressive drives. While soldiers involved in conventional war have opportunities to release aggression, the U.N. peacekeeper must restrain these drives.