Strategic Materials Sept. 11, 2025

From Awareness to Action: Securing U.S. Strategic Materials in an Era of Great Power Competition

The United States faces a mounting national security challenge due to its heavy reliance on foreign‐controlled supply chains for critical minerals that underpin defense systems, clean energy technologies, and advanced manufacturing. Despite policy measures like the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and Executive Order 14241, progress remains uneven. Geopolitical shocks—such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s export restrictions on gallium, germanium, and antimony—have exposed the strategic costs of U.S. inaction. This paper frames the problem by tracing how decades of offshoring and regulatory complexity have left the DIB ill-prepared for a surge in demand during a major crisis.

Strategic Materials May 31, 2024

Mining for the Future: The Critical Role of Strategic Materials in U.S. National Security

The United States faces significant challenges in securing supply chains for strategic materials crucial to national security and economic prosperity. With rising global demand for non-fuel minerals essential for advanced technologies, defense, and renewable energy, the U.S. must enhance supply chain resilience to reduce dependence on foreign sources, particularly China. China has established dominance in the strategic materials market through aggressive investments in mining and processing, giving it an advantage in the global supply chain. This includes state-backed initiatives in mining, refining, and midstream processing, as well as leveraging its position as a manufacturing hub. As a result, the U.S. is at a strategic disadvantage in this critical sector, especially amid global competition. The mining industry also faces challenges, including long development timelines, high capital investments, and market volatility, which complicate profitability and project support. Developing new mines can take over a decade and involves significant financial risk due to the cyclical nature of mineral markets. To maintain a competitive edge, companies must innovate in extraction methods and sustainability while optimizing operational efficiency.

Strategic Materials: May 30, 2023

Securing the Strategic Materials Supply Chain

In the case of military aggression by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against Taiwan, economic shockwaves would ripple across the Pacific. How can the U.S. prepare America’s defense industrial base for this contingency? The answer begins with ensuring access to strategic materials – the essential elements that form the foundation of the modern economy. Since the end of the Cold War, the PRC has cornered the market on a wide range of minerals and downstream processing that converts ore into modern life’s building block materials. More troubling, the PRC has also demonstrated a willingness to flex its power by temporarily cutting off exports of strategic materials to America’s partners and allies, as it did with rare earth elements in 2010 and threatened to do in 2017.

Strategic Materials: May 30, 2022

Toward an Industrial Security Strategy to Safeguard Access to Critical Minerals

Access to minerals is critical to U.S. economic and national security. However, in recent years, China and Russia have gained strategic advantages in critical mineral global supply chains, introducing unacceptable risks to the U.S. industrial base. In response, the United States must develop and execute a comprehensive, long-term industrial security strategy with its allies and partners to expand reliable and assured access to critical minerals.

Strategic Materials May 31, 2021

Securing Minerals Critical to National Security

2021 Antonelli Award Winner: The fragility of today’s critical minerals global value chain poses an untenable risk to the national security and economic prosperity of the United States. With domestic supply lagging after decades of underinvestment and inattention, the United States relies heavily upon foreign sources for dozens of mineral products that form the fabric of the U.S. economy and defense industrial base. While some of these foreign sources are steadfast U.S. allies, other less dependable foreign suppliers like China or politically unstable states represent serious supply vulnerabilities and risks. Exacerbating the situation, global trends in manufacturing and green technology portend higher future demand and heated competition for these vital materials. On its current path, the United States is not well-positioned to compete successfully for these essential components.

Strategic Materials Dec. 30, 2017

Strategic Materials

The United States has come to rely on a number of strategic materials to provide hi-tech consumer goods, advanced defense technologies, and renewable energy capabilities. Yet it remains dependent on imports for a good portion of these materials, either because they do not exist in the U.S. in mineable deposits, or their mining and processing is uneconomic. Current import levels satisfy U.S. demand for these materials, yet access to these imports is highly dependent on geopolitical factors. This survey investigates ways to mitigate the risk of supply disruption.