Politics & Governance / International Politics / Great Power Competition & Geopolitics

Geopolitics of Minerals -The New Oil: How Critical Minerals Are Redefining Global Power

The global economy is undergoing a paradigm shift from a fuel-intensive to a material-intensive system, where critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and copper act as the "new oil". While mining is global, China maintains a near-monopoly on processing and refining, controlling 19 out of 20 strategic minerals. Beijing has increasingly weaponized this dominance through proactive export controls on gallium, germanium, graphite, and rare earth technologies as a strategic "Assassin's Mace". In response, the U.S. and its allies are pivoting toward aggressive industrial policies, including the "$10 billion Project Vault" strategic reserve, the "Cornerstone Action" initiative, and the FORGE framework to bolster "friend-shoring". The West’s primary counter-strategy is "leapfrogging" via innovation, prioritizing disruptive materials science (e.g., rare-earth-free magnets) and waste recovery to bypass Chinese chokepoints. Simultaneously, the Global South is embracing resource nationalism, utilizing export bans to force domestic value capture