METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF GEOPOLITICAL REGIONS (MARG) 1. INTRODUCTION. APPROACH TO THE INVESTIGATION With globalization, national and international security increases itsr interrelationship, so that the analysis of the risks and threats of a country, affect the stability of its whole geopolitical region. Therefore, for example, the conflict in Libya is a destabilizing factor for the entire region. The same can be said of Syria or of Somalia. This requires a method of analysis of stabilities and instabilities of political regions that allows the adoption of policies and strategies capable of managing the crises before they reach the degree of war. The Dictionary of the Real Academia Española (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) defines Geopolitics as “the science that intends to base national and international politics in the systematic study of the geographic, economic, and racial factors”.1 The Word “racial” appears in this definition to make clear the meaning that geopolitics had in the decade of the thirties under the influence of the Munich School (Germany) and the evil use by Nazism, which banned it as an academic discipline; however it was used as a tool by the powers with regional or global geopolitical interests. Authors such as Spycman, Kissinger, Cohen, Brzezinski, Paul Kennedy, Hervé Coutau-Bégarie, Pierre Celerier, Huntington, Fukuyama, etc., show that geopolitics has always been present in the analysis of the international relations of the major powers. The Army Staff College defined Geopolitics as: “The science that pursues the definition of national or international politics based on the systematic analysis of the geographic scenario, and of other factors such as the economic, human, sociopolitical and military”. Geopolitics serves to analyze the scenario in which it must carry out its scope. Its objective is to improve making political decisions, providing all the information to facilitate the work of decision makers. The Intelligence Agencies and the Staff Colleges of the developed countries usually employ analysis methods based on geopolitics. On the other hand, the speed at which risks and threats associated to one or various geopolitical regions change, requires a continuous method of assessment based on the 1 ROYAL ACADEMY OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE. Dictionary of the Spanish Language, Ed. Espasa Calpe, 21st edition. Madrid, 1992, p. 1036. 268 http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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