Since the Latin American debt crisis of the early 80s, country risk analysis has accounted for a significant part of the work of research and risk management departments of banks, insurance companies, rating agencies, financial market regulators, and multinational companies. Country risk is a very broad concept, that includes sovereign risk, transfer risk, and other risks related with international financial activities. Country risk analysis requires delving into multiple fields, such as economics, finance, politics and history. This paper addresses the concept of country risk, the agents involved, the methods for assessing country risk, the payments crises, risk prevention, the assessment of country risk in the present world and the Spanish country risk regulation.