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The book “How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies of Global Power” written by Pedro Baños might be considered the initial step for those who want to understand the world of geopolitics and international affairs where nothing is as it seems.
Sometimes we need to re-discover the basics of geopolitics or refresh our expertise to reset our mind and start (again) looking at the world as it is: a fantastic place rich in human and natural resources where Governments and wealthy business people are fighting to become richer and all-powerful and control it.
Our team decided to read the book “How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies of Global Power” because of our interests in geopolitics and international relations and the will of discovering the thoughts and point of view of Pedro Baños Bajo (León, 1960) a Spanish military (Colonel of the Army), Head of Counterintelligence and Security of the European Army in Strasbourg for three years, and a specialist in geostrategy, defence, security, jihadist terrorism and Intelligence.
Even though the author was accused of being a “well known pro-Kremlin voice”, his work gives an excellent overview of the world of international relations and geoeconomics, putting particular emphasis on those winning strategies that allowed geopolitical actors to gain power or defeat their competitors.
We found intriguing the chapter dedicated to the main mistakes in geopolitics that have characterised human history: understanding others’ mistakes or misjudgement might guide future Intelligence analysts and politicians to reconsider their strategies and methodological approaches because history is the best teacher we can have and from whom we can learn lessons.
In our view, Pedro Baños’s work should be one of those books that a geopolitical analyst or an Intelligence officer should read in life because of its easy but no less exhaustive writing and the many case studies used to understand geopolitical and strategic concepts better.