The impact of killing in combat (KIC) on veterans’ long-term psychological health is multifaceted and influenced by deployment contexts. This study compared two samples of Norwegian veterans from combat-oriented (Afghanistan 2001–2011, N = 4,053) and peacekeeping (Lebanon 1978–1998, N = 10,605) missions to examine how personal threats, witnessing death/injury, and KIC uniquely predicted long-term mental health, alcohol use, and quality of life (QoL). In the combat-oriented sample, personal threats and witnessing death/injury predicted negative outcomes, while KIC did not.

This paper presents an ethnographic study of drone policing, demonstrating how the implementation of drones transforms not only everyday practices and tasks but also officers’ experiences and moral values in their work. While drones are often examined within military contexts, their application in domestic law enforcement is growing. Military studies focus on the concept of remoteness, discussing how operators manage distance-intimacy relations, with reduced physical risk but increased moral-psychological harm for operators due to detailed real-time imagery.

Introduction

Recent global events have underscored the importance of moral leadership and courage. A series of moderated conversations about moral leadership and dilemmas during times of conflict and crisis were facilitated in 2021 with Lieutenant-General (ret’d) The Honourable Romeo Dallaire, military and global affairs experts and international scholars from North America, Europe, Australia and the global south, together with students from the Netherlands and Canada.

Objective

This paper introduces the concept of Intergenerational Colonial Trauma Syndrome (ICTS) as a necessary intervention in trauma studies, critiquing the Western psychiatric model that frames trauma as a discrete past event. PTSD, a widely accepted framework, assumes that trauma occurs as an isolated moment, after which healing is possible. However, for colonized and oppressed populations experiencing ongoing systemic violence, forced displacement, and genocide, trauma is not a past event but a continuous, inherited condition that is structurally reinforced.