Statecft of Critical Minerals

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Critical minerals — rare earths, lithium, cobalt, copper, and the broader set of inputs underpinning defense systems, semiconductors, and clean energy technologies — have become one of the defining strategic vulnerabilities of the 21st century. The United States was once the world's dominant rare earths producer and miner. Within a generation, it ceded that position to China, which now controls the preponderance of global mining, processing, and refining capacity across the critical minerals sector. Governments increasingly treat critical minerals as a strategic domain in their own right, comparable to semiconductors and artificial intelligence in its bearing on economic competitiveness and national security. This course examines critical minerals from the perspective of strategy, not survey. Students analyze how the United States lost ground over four decades — through policy choices, market incentives, and a sustained Chinese industrial strategy — and, more centrally, what can be done to change course. Particular attention is given to the instruments available to policymakers and industry: trade agreements and tariff policy, defense production authorities, investment tools, and allied and partner-country relationships. Students will evaluate which levers have worked, which have failed, and why, and will leave equipped to design and defend policy responses to one of the sharpest points of great power competition today.