281 Miguel Ángel Ballesteros Martín Method for the analysis of geopolitical regions... This method is not a general study, but rather it is reduced to a specific aspect, preferably related to national security. In addition, it analyzes current conflicts, trying to detect, at the same time, the latent conflicts in the area of interest by studying all the factors. It tries to infer the development, projection, and extension of the conflicts, whether they are on-going or taking shape, to other areas or countries. It has the clear advantages of a specific objective, and to go further than the past to analyze the present, and deduce the development of latent conflicts. 2.1.11. Geographic military method For a few years, the professors of the Strategy Department in the General Staff College of the Army, developed a “geographic military” method which undertook a study of the physical, human, economic, and sociopolitical factors of a country to deduce how its armed forces should be, establishing its vulnerabilities, and the discrepancies between the existing and needed forces.37 The geographic military method is an analysis process, which continues with a synthesis to eventually draw conclusions following the steps of all informational processes: definition of the objectives of the study, compilation (collection and classification of data), assessment (determine its relevance, accuracy, and description, specifying the reliability of the source), and interpretation, which is the crucial step of the cycle in which the deduction is applied seeking military conclusions, which constitute the synthesis. The analysis must be as durable as possible which is why it emphasizes the possibilities and vulnerabilities. The possibilities, considered regardless of the attitudes, represent the capability of any country or coalition to reach its objectives, and they are the expression of its national potential, relatively stable and subject to slow changes. As far as the vulnerabilities, they represent the sensitivity of a country or coalition to any foreign action, whose quick modification is also difficult. Regarding the analysis factors, the method determines the following factors: the environment, the physical, human, economic, sociopolitical, and military factors. Once these factors are analyzed, a comparison is established between the armed forces that the country under study needs, and those which it really has, to proceed to examine the causes, look for their origin, establish the diagnosis of the situation. 37 RUBIO ARACIL, J. and BALLESTEROS, M. Study Methods. Geographic- militay. Geostrategic. War Studies.Arms Races. Escuela de Estado Mayor del Ejército. Strategy Textbook., Madrid, 1992, p. 3. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
Revista del IEEE 6
To see the actual publication please follow the link above