Critical Minerals and Great Power Competition: Interactions and Implications

Jun 13, 2024 | Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Mistra Geopolitics
online
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Critical minerals are vital for the transition away from fossil fuels towards cleaner energy but who has those minerals and who doesn’t is becoming a contested geopolitical issue.  As part of the Mistra Geopolitics programme the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will host a panel discussion on the global implications of this competition for resources.

In the context of heightened geopolitical tensions, countries have begun to institute measures to ensure critical or strategic minerals security. Minerals security contributes to a range of national-level policy imperatives, from clean energy to military defence. At the same time, the pursuit of minerals security also dovetails with wider trends of geoeconomic fragmentation and bloc formation—with the West on one side, and countries such as China and Russia on the other. As major powers ‘de-risk’ and even ‘de-couple’ their supply chains from putative adversaries, more needs to be understood about how competing pursuits of critical or strategic minerals security interact, and what implications this competition has for global-level imperatives of green transition, sustainable development and peaceful interstate relations.

This SIPRI webinar centres on mineral resource competition. With a focus on the policies of China, the European Union, Russia and the United States, the event will unpack varying strategies towards and implications associated with this competition.

The webinar will be held online at 14:00–16:00 CEST on 13 June. Click here to register.

Programme

Introduction

  • Dr. Jiayi Zhou, SIPRI

Speakers

  • Dr. Marina Zhang, University of Technology Sydney
  • Dr. Florian Vidal, IFRI and The Arctic University of Norway
  • Dr. Cullen Hendrix, Peterson Institute for International Economics
  • Dr. Sophia Kalantzakos, New York University

Discussant

  • Dr. André Månberger, Lund University

Audience Q&A