The fourth edition of WARMCAMP 2018 (Workshop And Roving Mezzanine Conference of Applied Military Psychology) concluded successfully in Pune. It comprised of three keynote speakers including Dr Merle Parmak, Military psychologist and advisor to NATO and Dr Jacques Gouws from Canada. There were nine workshops, nine paper presentations, panel discussions, interactive sessions and two book releases on military psychology and leadership development (including cadet development) co-authored by military psychologists from over 10 countries.

Conceptualised by Lt Col Dr Samir Rawat, a military psychologist and decorated war veteran of Kargil operations who has been organising WARMCAMP since past four years ago as an annual event to create an awareness of military psychology as an emerging area of study among students of psychology, roving refers to the conference location constantly moving for access to a larger interested target population, mezzanine refers to connect between experiential learning at ground zero of military environment on one hand and evidence based scientific academic research on the other. The first WARMCAMP in 2015 had over 100 delegates from 25 cities, WARMCAMP 2016 in Jaipur and WARMCAMP 2017 in Pune had delegates from 10 countries participating.

Since past four years, WARMCAMP has evinced keen interest and has been attended by students of psychology, academicians, military officers and their spouses and professors from different parts of the country and delegates from over 12 countries as well as uniformed delegates from Army, Navy, Army Training Command (ARTRAC), Naval Headquarters (NHQ), National Police Academy, BSF, Police, Special Forces, Commandos, Para Military Forces and general population as well attending.

Besides students and professors of psychology from colleges and universities in different parts of the world, this year’s WARMCAMP 2018 saw delegates registering from Naval H.Q, National Security Guard (NSG), Officers Training Academy, Chennai and INS Shivaji, Lonavala as well. So far, delegates from Brazil, Canada, Estonia, India, Iran, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UAE and USA have participated in WARMCAMP.

Sharing his experience Lt Col Dr Samir Rawat said, “Besides numerous back to back workshops, WARMCAMP 2018 in Pune was an enriching experience with keynotes by eminent psychology professors & academicians to discuss the theme of relevance of psychology in the military environment and the need to have optimally trained psychologists and counsellors to facilitate in alleviating stress for this unique, yet neglected target population.”