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This book is a report of cross-national research on the civil-military cultural differences in democratic societies, particularly centred on the attitudes of national elites, here considered as being mainly composed of professionals. The research studies the question: "What are the differences between the values, opinions and attitudes of military officers and those of professionals belonging to other categories? What is the effect of these differences on society in each country, and on the national security sector? What are the current trends of this gap?" Researchers investigated a sample of cadets at military academies and their generational peers at civilian universities ("future elites"). An expert survey was also employed to sample "present elites", both civilian and military. The report is divided into three parts: the first is devoted to describing the project's theoretical framework and the methodology used in the field research; the second part, in a comparative international dimension, deals with the results of the research on the main survey themes: i.e. value orientations, socialisation processes, media and public opinion, security policy and threats perception, democratic control of the armed forces, new missions, gender impact, national differences. The third part is aimed at illustrating the national specificities for better understanding of the results of the cross-national comparison developed in the preceding part. Finally, the last chapter presents a comparison between present and future elites and an attempt to draw a few conclusions (but many others have been left to the reader).