ABSTRACT
Demands and Expectations of Military Service: A Modern Historical Overview ............................................................................................. 45 Stresses of Modern Military Service in War .................................................... 48 Our Modern Military into the Future............................................................... 50 References .............................................................................................................. 53
Resilience has proven to be a useful construct in the study of human adaptation to stress and adversity (Bonnano, 2004). However, because human beings are complex creatures embedded in dynamic social and cultural environments, it is understandably diffi cult to defi ne the concept of resilience in a way that enables researchers to identify, measure, or manipulate its essential features. Other behavioral scientifi c concepts such as stress (Cannon, 1953; McCarty, 1989; Selye, 1980), situation awareness (Endsley, 1995), and mental workload (Eggemeier, 1988) have posed similar diffi culties. Like resilience, these constructs attempt to describe essential but empirically elusive human characteristics and capacities. Such complex constructs can oft en produce valuable insights and interventions in their respective areas of concern only aft er many years of challenging research and confusing or contradictory fi ndings.
