Who gave emotional containment to the deployed military members? Trends in the military professional dependency on their families among the Argentine peacekeepers in Haiti (2004-2015)

FREDERIC SABINA

Atenas

Conferencia; 13 biennal conference ERGOMAS,; 2017

ERGOMAS

The traditional dependency of the military profession on family was challenged both by the changes in the family life and by the redefinition of the Argentine Armed Forces in contemporary Argentina. As a result, the military asked for the institutional recognition of divorce and concubinage that was considered by traditional military rules as ?an irregular family situation? that stood in the way of promotion, and thus hindered the career. Also, an increasing number of officers and non-commissioned officers? requested to be transferred from their current military destiny to another one that allowed living together with their family members.Nevertheless, our research about the place of the family during the Argentinian peacekeeping deployment to Haiti (MINUSTAH) conveys that such challenges do not tend to dissolute the above mentioned dependency. Conversely, the analysis of fifty ethnographic interviews carried out-conducted in 2014 and 2015 with male former peacekeepers, psychologists and instructors in charge of the pre and post deployment training show other tendencies. Under the unquestionable idea that ?the performance of the military who deploys does not depend just on himself but also on his family?, the CAECOPAZ (Argentinean Center for Joint Training to Peace Operations) developed a specific program. Its goal is to emotionally support the family members of the deployed military, and was endorsed by the United Nations International Training Standards. In this chapter, we compare the convergences and divergences between that institutional resource, and the way the former peacekeepers managed their families before, during and after their deployment to Haiti.