335 Carlos Martí Sempere An evolutionary view of defence survival of erroneous elections. Mitigating these two problems again involves greater knowledge. Therefore, it is recommendable that decision-makers should personally have the greatest experience and knowledge of the research in question, or they should be assisted by staff with the required expertise or by independent consultants. In this sense, organizations such as programme offices or main contractors should accumulate sufficient technical and operational talent and knowledge, to guide the way to discovering the best solutions. Lastly, it is important to foster the diffusion of this acquired knowledge so allowing concepts and technologies to spread47 within the armed forces, the defence industry and other organizations such as allied armies or civil firms. This diffusion of knowledge ought only to be bounded by the need to prevent certain doctrines or certain technologies from falling into the hands of a potential adversary. Thus the Administration can foster the implementation of a new technology, whose effects spill over the rest of the economy, as is the case of satellite positioning systems and other general purpose technologies. This promotion could extend to the support of (it is difficult for the Administration to act on its own) activities geared towards coordinating specialised knowledge and favouring the cross fertilization of ideas, with the formation of seminars, or the formation of joint ventures. This support is necessary, bearing in mind that a firm has few incentives to disseminate knowledge, and tends rather to hide it or prevent its use via patents. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 8. CONCLUSIONS This brief article has presented an evolutionary vision of defence highlighting the growing complexity of military capabilities –characterised by a more sophisticated organisation, a more advanced doctrine and equipment with ever more functions and features permitting an ever greater protection of society. This evolution is governed by a constant process of change allowing for increases in knowledge and the development of capabilities better adapted towards the solving of military problems. In this framework the new capabilities are the fruit of a co-evolution between knowledge, operational procedures and material means. As can be observed in practice, the mechanisms of this evolution are capable of achieving significant results, despite the limitations mentioned. Thus, the effectiveness of human proposals, intelligence and future vision ought to be complemented by the 47 See, for example, Geroski, P. A. “Models of technology diffusion”. Research Policy, 2000: 603- 625.
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