The HFM-394 Research Workshop on The Spiritual Dimension of Military Health and Resilience was held on 8 – 9 October 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden. Thirty-eight experts from 14 nations gathered, including chaplains, military health professionals, psychologists, ethicists, theologians, and academic researchers.
The event addressed the strategic importance of spirituality for NATO forces operating in complex, high-stress environments. Spirituality was affirmed as a core pillar of resilience, contributing to meaning-making, and moral grounding. The Ukrainian contribution was foregrounded, providing frontline insights on spiritual resilience during total war.
Key themes included spiritual fitness as a dynamic process, moral injury as a distinct biopsychosocial-spiritual syndrome, and the chaplain’s evolving role within multidisciplinary health teams. Discussions emphasised cultural sensitivity, mixed-method assessment tools, and technology-supported solutions while preserving relational care. Broad consensus emerged on the need for harmonised terminology, including the development of a mission-effective glossary to align language both internationally and interdisciplinary among chaplains, mental health professionals, commanders, and researchers.
Recommendations include establishing collaborative civilian academic and NATO-led structures: regular international conferences, STO webinars, research updates in chaplaincy courses, and a dedicated research institute network. These initiatives aim to embed empirically grounded spiritual-existential care into NATO’s health strategies, ensuring operational readiness and resilience in wartime contexts.
Integrating the spiritual-existential component into military health systems is essential for mission success, and requires coordinated research, training, and policy development.
Science & Technology Organization (STO) , 2026. , p. 10
Conference: HFM-394 Research Workshop on The Spiritual Dimension of Military Health and Resilience, Stockholm, Sweden, October 8-9, 2025.