During the Cold War, a series of coups in Latin America resulted in a new form of military rule-the national security state-in which the armed forces ruled as an institution and drastically transformed state and society to conform to a messianic vision of national security. This book examines the lasting impact of institutionalized military power on Argentine state and society and the structural legacies of the national security state. Despite important steps toward democracy in the 1980s, security and intelligence forces acted to block democratizing measures and shape the emerging political system.
J. Patrice McSherry is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. Her most recent book is Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America. Twice a Fulbright Scholar (Argentina and Uruguay), she is Associate Editor/Latin America for Journal of Third World Studies.