Engineering Society: The Geopolitics of Rare Earths

Join the Wolfson Engineering Society for a very special talk on the Geopolitics of Rare Earths, the subject matter of speaker Benjamin Smith’s DPhil. The consistent supply of rare earth elements and other critical minerals is now considered a global economic and security issue for many major Western economies. Yet for reasons unknown, the supply of these minerals has been mostly concentrated in foreign suppliers, which presents a major trade and security risk for countries dependent for imports. In this presentation, I trace the history and evolution of the United States’ treatment of critical minerals and show the tipping points in-which they have slowly shifted from a market commodity to a national security concern. Although many governments now cite the need to meet demands associated with the clean energy transition, and military applications, I show that supply chain securitisation mostly follows the use of export controls (“supply chain shocks”.) This talk should be of interest to anyone with a political science, international relations, or economics background, and will hopefully shed some light on a major topic in global politics.