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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my thanks to all of you who have supported me throughout my doctoral dissertation.

First and foremost, I am extending my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Willibald Ruch for the opportunity to conduct this research and for all his guiding advice. His intensive support in exploring details, his academic expertise, and his wide-reaching supervision have enabled this project to deliver the essential findings, nuances, and new viewpoints in understanding values and virtues within the military context and beyond.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach for agreeing to review my thesis and to let me benefit from his academic and military experience. I also thank him for his structured method of coaching me through the interdisciplinary stages finalizing the dissertation.

A very special thanks is addressed to Dr. Hubert Annen, my supervisor at the department of Military Psychology and Military Pedagogy Studies at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich (MILAK). His coaching and scientific directives helped me mature into what is required to cope with the diversity of challenges in creating value in academic and professional life. I gratefully appreciate all his commitment towards my project, his inspiring and insightful thoughts, and the ongoing flexibility to foster this project. Last but not least, I deeply value his trust and the friendship he shares with me all the way along.

Special thanks and sympathy go to Dr. Peter Stöckli and lic. phil. Can Nakkas, my professional colleagues and friends. We not only shared an office together for more than five years, but also went through ups and downs together, motivating and supporting each other, and not losing the proper doses of humor at times.

All the same thanks are shared with the whole team at the department of Military Psychology and Military Pedagogy Studies, with MSc Philippe Goldammer, MSc Madlaina Niederhauser, and MSc Regula Züger for their support in every way. In particular, I thank Philippe for his initiative in assisting me with the data collection for Study III.

Many thanks are due to the commanders of the Swiss Armed Forces who supported me with collecting data, conducting the military expert interview, and sharing their opinions on the subject of military values and virtues. The personal interaction with the participants was of great value to me. A very special thanks is conveyed to the former directors of the Military Academy (MILAK), Brigadier General (retired) Daniel Lätsch and Brigadier General Daniel Moccand, and to the current commander at the MILAK, Brigadier General Peter Stocker, for all their generous support and approval to conduct this research project.

I also would like to thank Colonel on the General Staff Reini Eugster for encouraging me to become a specialist officer in communication and press relations, thereby enabling me to experience military life in practice with all of its true meaning of comradeship, esprit de corps, loyalty, and discipline representing real military values and virtues.

An additional appreciation for sharing essential scientific, philosophical, and personal dialogue, especially during the initial phase of my dissertation, goes to Dr. theol. and Colonel on the General Staff Dieter Baumann. I would also like to thank Dr. Florian Demont and MSc Sabrina Pfister for sharing interdisciplinary initiatives within the domain of value research at the MILAK from the perspective of psychology, philosophy, and sociology.

Furthermore, I am expressing thanks to the recruits, soldiers, officer candidates, professional NCOs, and professional officers of the Swiss Armed Forces, who participated in my online studies on values and virtues.

I want to add my warm thanks to all my former and current colleagues for exchanging their thoughts with me as part of the doctorate colloquium, the PhD seminar, and the writing circle, both at University of Zurich, at the MILAK of ETH Zurich, and at University of Lucerne. In particular, I thank Dr. Angelika Güsewell and Dr. Sarah Auerbach for this intense and lasting PhD type of friendship.

I am very fortunate to also extend my thanks to Mrs. Gretchen Bain Matthews for the time-consuming and very valuable effort to proofread my dissertation.

A special thanks is conveyed to Dr. Priska Hubmann, who provided essential assistance in establishing the proper configuration for a professional MS word layout and literature references. Another warm thanks goes to MSc Regula Lätsch and to MSc Nicole Jehle for their valuable assistance as part of the data collection and data analysis.

And I do not want to miss extending my thanks to my family and friends in real life who created those special moments in time when I needed a good dose of balance, relaxation, and chats, adding additional strengths throughout the dissertation process.

Nadine Eggimann Zanetti