Zoltan Barany is the Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Centennial Professor of Government at the University of Texas and the author of Democratic Breakdown and the Decline of the Russian Military (Princeton).

"Too often are military institutions and the threat they pose to democratic consolidation ignored. The Soldier and the Changing State provides a necessary corrective to this oversight by directly tackling the many challenges of building democratic militaries. Barany's work should thus inspire a new research agenda within the democratization field."---Kristen A. Harkness, Political Science Quarterly --- "The Soldier and the Changing State will probably be most widely read among specialists of civil-military relations, who will learn a great deal from the case studies in particular. But it should also find a considerable audience among democratization scholars. The book neither offers up a new theory of regime change nor tests existing theories, but there is no better general historical treatment of the ways in which civil-military relations influence the transition process in countries around the world."---Brian D. Taylor, Perspectives on Politics --- "The Soldier and the Changing State is an extraordinary book in both senses of that word, simultaneously remarkable and rare. . . . The Soldier and the Changing State will probably be most widely read among specialists of civil-military relations, who will learn a great deal from the case studies in particular. But it should also find a considerable audience among democratization scholars. The book neither offers up a new theory of regime change nor tests existing theories, but there is no better general historical treatment of the ways in which civil-military relations influence the transition process in countries around the world."---Brian D. Taylor, Comparative Politics --- "The Soldier and the Changing State is very useful reading for democracy scholars and practitioners. It lives up to its title, and it may even displace Huntington's classic as the first stop for those seeking to understand democratic civil-military relations today."---Harold A. Trinkunas, Journal of Democracy --- "This is an important work on militaries in newly democratizing regimes. The scope of the work is impressive. . . . The topic of democratization of militaries is . . . very important, and the remarkable breadth of the work will make it an essential handbook." --- "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013"