Narcís Serra is currently President of the CIDOB Foundation and the 'Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals' (IBEI). He is a former Mayor of Barcelona, Spanish Minister of Defence and Vice President of the Spanish Government.

'This meticulously researched volume explains how the relationship between the armed forces and politicians can change from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones. The author is not only a first-rate social scientist but, as one of the longest-serving defense ministers in a major European state, someone who was responsible for formulating and implementing defense reform. Serra's lucid arguments and insights about military politics in various political and geographic contexts attest to his broad intellectual vistas that extend far beyond Spain and Europe. In short, this is a terrific book that anyone interested in democratization and military affairs would read with much profit.' Zoltan Barany, Frank C. Erwin Jr Professor of Government, University of Texas and Susan Louise Dyer Peace Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

• Introduction; 1. The study of the transition to democracy; 2. Democratic transition and the armed forces: military autonomy; 3. What is military reform?; 4. The component parts of military reform; 5. Transition and military reform in Spain; 6. Consolidation and military reform in Spain; 7. Controlling the armed forces in the stage of democratic persistence: the debate in the United States over the last ten years; 8. Conclusions.