Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 235 a 237 236 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 12 / 2018 Two officers of the Portuguese armed forces – Lieutenant Colonel Brás Bernardino and Major Moreira dos Santos – describe Portugal’s contribution to the creation, from the Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor, of new defence forces in East Ti-mor. This type of assistance in the institutional construction or reconstruction of cou-ntries which, for various reasons, clearly lack the essential elements for the full exercise of sovereignty, has materialised in numerous world scenarios. And, in the case of East Timor, it is only logical that Portugal would be the country most involved in the task of managing the post-conflict situation pursuant to agreements concluded under the auspices of the United Nations from 2000 onwards. The fourth article, by Colonel Gallego Gordon, takes us to a scenario that has ma-jor implications for Spain and, therefore, Europe, given the obvious consequences that developments in the Western Sahel will have for Spain. Development and security go hand in hand; without the latter, you cannot achieve the former. However, this is not an easy task if you consider the numerous factors that hinder the establishment of an acceptable level of security in the region: institutional weakness, poverty, demogra-phics, all manner of illicit trafficking, jihadism and climate change, etc. A challenge of this magnitude cannot be tackled with half or ad hoc measures. Therefore, the author proposes we analyse the structural causes of instability in the region, the reason for the numerous conflicts and, in light of the lessons learned, try to identify what kind of cooperation is needed, without overlooking the limitations that the EU – the interna-tional actor most involved in the Sahel – is encountering in its efforts to support the reconstruction and consolidation of these states. The agreement reached between the international community and Iran to imple-ment the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, whereby Iran pledged to use nuclear power solely for civilian purposes in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against it, gave rise to a wave of multilateral cooperation that crashed when the new U.S. Admi-nistration withdrew from the agreement. The U.S.’s withdrawal opens up numerous conjectures about how the situation will unfold in the region, which the author of our fifth article, Sub-lieutenant Peña Ruiz, examines from the perspective of the game theory. The conflict, which seemed to be in the process of being resolved, did not di-sappear. It simply evolved. Each scenario opens up new possibilities. And the different actors involved seek to protect their own interests interacting with one another, which further complicates the problem: Iran, the United States, the European Union, the regional powers (Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey), a hyperactive Russia and an ever-expectant China. Finally, our sixth article, by Miguel Yagües Palazón, looks at a very specific environ-mental challenge: the proliferation of orbital debris in outer space. Human activity beyond Earth’s atmosphere is increasing day by day and, in addition to states, private enterprise has also begun to travel beyond the aerosphere. The inevitable consequence of this increased human presence is a constant build-up of waste materials, which is not easy to manage, let alone cheap. And, to further exacerbate the problem, in a situation like this, where clear and decisive regulatory intervention is needed to force those responsible to take the necessary preventive and corrective measures, we find
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