Civil-military relations in post-conflict societies: transforming the role of the military in Central America

1. The military and democracy in Latin America -- 2. Guatemala : building democratic civil-military relations after genocide -- 3. Honduras : military coup and constitutional arrangements -- 4. El Salvador : demilitarization and democratization after civil war -- 5. Nicaragua : from revolutionaries to national army -- 6. Facing the challenges of crime and violence -- 7. Democratic values : the impact of crime and insecurity -- 8. Public opinion and the armed forces -- 9. Military role beliefs : assessing progress toward democratic civil-military relations.

Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras are four Spanish speaking countries in Central America that possess uniformed military institutions. These four countries represent different approaches to reforms of civil-military relations, and embody varying degrees of success in both institutional democratization and the managing of security forces.In this book, Orlando J. Pérez expertly examines the competing theories of civil-military relations in Central America to advance our understanding of the origins, consequences and persistence of militarism in Latin America.Divided into four parts