Nearly a year into his second term, it’s becoming clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is keen to break China’s monopoly on critical minerals, the resources that are crucial for their use in modern technologies. Seen through that lens, one can trace a thread running through the White House’s policies from Pakistan to Panama—a link that also explains threats to take over Canada, Greenland, and Ukraine.
Why are critical minerals so important? What would it take for the United States to catch up with China? Gracelin Baskaran is the director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She will join FP Live to explain the increasing salience of these minerals in geopolitics.