NO PLACE LIKE HOME? POST-DEPLOYMENT REINTEGRATION CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS

The research identifies significant relational turbulence among South African peacekeepers returning from missions in the DRC, Darfur/Sudan, and Burundi. Key challenges include strained relationships with children, financial conflicts, and the struggle to renegotiate household boundaries within a patriarchal societal context. While soldiers receive institutional resilience training, their families often lack similar support, exacerbating the difficulty of reintegration.

• South African peacekeepers experience significant relational stress with their children upon return, characterized by children's detachment and behavioral changes. Younger children may not recognize the returning parent, while older children often exhibit clinginess or fear of further separation.
• Gender-specific concerns emerge regarding childcare during deployment: female soldiers express high anxiety over their children's well-being and the reliability of caregivers, citing high rates of rape in South African society, whereas male soldiers focus more on the loss of household discipline in their absence.
• Reintegration is complicated by 'relational turbulence,' where soldiers feel like strangers in their own homes and struggle to transition from the communal living of a mission to the emotional demands of family life.
• Infidelity and financial mismanagement are primary drivers of relational uncertainty. Female soldiers frequently report male infidelity during deployment, while both genders cite stress over spouses spending deployment allowances or the pressure to support extended families due to high national unemployment.
• Boundary renegotiation is often fraught with conflict due to conservative patriarchal values in South Africa. Male soldiers frequently attempt to re-establish dominance and authority over households where wives have gained autonomy during the deployment.
• There is a critical gap in institutional support: while the military provides resilience training for soldiers, families are largely unprepared and lack access to counseling or information, partly because many spouses live off-base in rural areas or townships.
• Extended deployment lengths (e.g., increasing from six to twelve months) are identified as a primary cause of relationship breakdown and divorce, particularly among younger soldiers.

APA

Peace Research Institute Oslo (n.d.). NO PLACE LIKE HOME? POST-DEPLOYMENT REINTEGRATION CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0e4b7435-797e-49b9-9316-91d98dab94f7/No Place Like Home Postdeployment Reintegration Challenges Facing South African Peacekeepers.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Peace Research Institute Oslo. NO PLACE LIKE HOME? POST-DEPLOYMENT REINTEGRATION CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS. n.d. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0e4b7435-797e-49b9-9316-91d98dab94f7/No Place Like Home Postdeployment Reintegration Challenges Facing South African Peacekeepers.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Peace Research Institute Oslo |title=NO PLACE LIKE HOME? POST-DEPLOYMENT REINTEGRATION CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0e4b7435-797e-49b9-9316-91d98dab94f7/No Place Like Home Postdeployment Reintegration Challenges Facing South African Peacekeepers.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{peaceresearchinstituteoslondplace, author = {{Peace Research Institute Oslo}}, title = {{NO PLACE LIKE HOME? POST-DEPLOYMENT REINTEGRATION CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0e4b7435-797e-49b9-9316-91d98dab94f7/No Place Like Home Postdeployment Reintegration Challenges Facing South African Peacekeepers.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }