Evaluation and prioritization of geographical factors affecting Iran's defense power

Iran's geopolitical position in the region has led to threats to the country at various times , which has made it inevitable for Iran to have full military readiness to counter the threats. And the need to strengthen the country's defense and defense power is a fundamental and important principle in the country's foreign policy. Geographical factors have a prominent and decisive role among the various factors affecting the country's defense power. In this study, in order to explain the priority and important geographical factors affecting Iran's defense power, by studying the documents and previous scientific records , and using the opinions of 30 experts. 73 Geographical factors were identified. In the second step , with the formation of the expert panel , similar factors were merged and 28 factors were identified. Then, based on the opinion of experts, the values of the factors were ranked and 16 important and effective factors were determined. And finally, by using the IPA importance-performance analysis method, the importance value and performance value of each factor is determined separately based on the five-point Likert scale, and according to the results obtained and the weighting of the factors, three priority factors that have high importance and performance And four factors with high importance and low performance were identified as important geographical factors affecting Iran's defense power.