Defense Critical Minerals: Supply, Security, and the Context Between BRICS+ West

For two centuries the world ran on oil. It now runs on minerals - and on the handful of refineries, mostly outside the West, that turn raw ore into the magnets, semiconductors, and munitions of modern power. Defense Critical Minerals maps the contest now underway between the BRICS+ bloc and the Western alliance for control of the materials on which security and prosperity depend. Drawing on the events of 2024 through 2026 - China's export bans, the rare-earth licensing weapon, and the scramble to rebuild allied supply - Dr. Jensine Andresen shows why the true chokepoint lies not in the ground but in the midstream, and why whoever controls it controls the century's foundation. Through sharp case studies - Central Asia's contested wealth, and the strategic stories of antimony, gallium and germanium, the rare-earth magnet, and the copper beneath the age of AI - this is a clear-eyed account of the new geopolitics of supply.

Pages: 262, Paperback, Independently published