The fifth edition of the Political Overview of Conflicts (?POC?) continues research initiated in 2011, intended to rigorously treat the presently occurring or latent main conflicts with a comprehensive focus. The POC is in line with the National Security Strategy, ?a shared project,? in that ?Spain should have the capacity to participate in crises or conflicts as a supportive partner of the international organizations to which it belongs. These support functions would include peacekeeping, civil protection, or other operations affecting our shared values or derived from commitments made by international organizations such as the UN.? In addition, the POC stresses the need to ?collaborate and give aid to citizens [], based on previous knowledge, and increased awareness of, and sensitivity to, the importance of national security in guaranteeing freedom, prosperity?.?
The structure of this publication follows that of the first issue: an introduction, including an outlook of the geopolitical region and the importance of the conflict to justify its choice for the publication; the historical and immediate antecedents of the conflict; the current status of the conflict, analyzing the important aspects from a comprehensive perspective; the role of the external actors their regional implications; other geopolitical interests, making special reference to Spain and the European Union; ending with the conclusions and a vision for future evolution. In addition, the intention is to maximize graphics, but at least all the chapters include the chronology of the conflict and a table of geopolitical indicators.
With over 75 conflicts analyzed to this date, in this volume, the reader will be able to understand the nature of jihadist terrorism, and delve deeper into the crises taking place in the Sahara, post-Soviet areas, the Arctic, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, South Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Himalayan region, and the Strait of Malacca.
