![\"Stratfor's\"](\"http:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Stratfors.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cThe world is seen differently depending on one\u2019s location.\u201d<\/b> This phrase has been haunting me for some time and I\u2019m constantly reminded of it in all my trips and discussions. Being tied into our own daily reality, we care less about what\u2019s happening in the world and we tend to be interested only in those issues that affect us. I understand that someone living in Romania doesn\u2019t pay much attention to what\u2019s going on in Mexico. But for me, being able to look beyond my own perspective to see what motivates actions by countries is important, and it\u2019s at the center of my job at Stratfor.I\u2019ve always loved international relations and I can\u2019t imagine my life without reading about the events happening in the most faraway corners of the globe. Moreover, I understand that Romania\u2019s and Mexico\u2019s different ways of seeing the world are born solely from place \u2014 their geography, their locations, their neighbors. And understanding how Romania views the world compared to how Mexico views the world helps me understand and predict their actions \u2014 which is quite useful in business.<\/p>\n
However, all those differences in perception bring up another issue: What is really significant? What should I look into and how do leaders really make their decisions? <\/b>At Stratfor, we don\u2019t look at the personalities, but instead analyze the forces that affect world leaders. While the media concentrates on the subjective desires of leaders voiced at press conferences, Stratfor concentrates on the various constraints upon their behavior \u2014 geographic, political, economic \u2014 that are concrete but never publicly acknowledged. Geopolitics allows us to place an event or action within a larger framework to determine its potential significance, as well as identify connections among seemingly disparate trends. But how do we define if an event is significant? Intelligence. The graphic included here illustrates how we process and evaluate information.<\/p>\n
The disciplined methodology and assessment process are oriented toward forecasting \u2014 explaining not only why something has happened but also what will happen next. Some of our reports are shorter and others are longer, because sometimes the question of \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d can be addressed directly and with few words, whereas other times a deep exploration of context is needed. We serve the decision maker, whose job is to understand thoroughly and act quickly.<\/p>\n
There will always be priorities and there will always be problems that must be addressed. I\u2019ve written posts on this blog about the Middle East, China, the Balkans and the EU\u2019s current problems, exploring the connections between countries and regions, which are always tied to history, geography and culture. And this relates to a problem that many companies and individuals have\u00a0today: to act in a particular environment, a deep understanding of how that place views the world is required.<\/p>\n
And because I\u2019ve talked about my personal preoccupations this week and didn\u2019t say a word about what\u2019s important from a global perspective, allow me to share my favorite quote from George Friedman, Stratfor\u2019s founder: \u201cA life is made up of a fabric of expectations and predictions. There is no action taken that is not done with the expectation, reasonable or not, erroneous or not, of some predictable consequence.\u201d That quote is from the analysis \u201cThe Love of One\u2019s Own and the Importance of Place<\/b>,\u201d one that I enjoy re-reading. We\u2019re all tied to the history, geography and culture of our place of birth, but learning how others are tied to theirs can provide insights into why countries act as they do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe world is seen differently depending on one\u2019s location.\u201d This phrase has been haunting me for some time and I\u2019m constantly reminded of it in all my trips and discussions. Being tied into our own daily reality, we care less about what\u2019s happening in the world and we tend to be interested only in those issues that affect us. I understand that someone living in Romania doesn\u2019t pay much attention to what\u2019s going on in Mexico. But for me, being able to look beyond my own perspective to see what motivates actions by countries is important, and it\u2019s at the center of my job at Stratfor.I\u2019ve always loved international relations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antonia-colibasanu-en","category-blog-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4613,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions\/4613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}