Critical Minerals and the Future of the U.S. Economy

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Safeguarding the minerals supply chains for advanced technologies in strategic industries is an economic and national security imperative. Yet significant vulnerabilities continue to exist in the supply chain, despite the ongoing efforts by government and businesses to address them. Policymakers now face the immense task of fortifying supplies of everything from lithium and graphite for advanced battery chemistries to tungsten and rare earth elements for the next generation of warfighting technologies. The United States will need to strengthen both its mission clarity and its execution with a comprehensive strategy focused on domestic resource development, advanced processing and recycling technologies, international partnerships, and sustainable practices.

This edited volume brings together the analysis and policy recommendations of 15 experts, led by editors Dr. Gracelin Baskaran and Dr. Duncan Wood, to bolster U.S. competitiveness and leadership in these areas. It is intended to be a resource for policymakers in the new U.S. administration and Congress. The volume shows that resilient mineral chains have never been more important for U.S. security than at this critical juncture.

Author Bio

Dr. Gracelin Baskaran is the director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a bye-fellow in economics at the University of Cambridge. She is a mining economist, and her primary expertise is in critical minerals and trade. She began her career in South Africas platinum belt. She later spent five years at the World Bank in South Africa, where she coauthored the book Africas Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition. She was a Fulbright Scholar and has also held positions at the University of Cambridge, University of London, and University of Cape Town. Dr. Baskaran is now writing a book on an international strategy for critical minerals engagement for the United States. She has been cited as an expert in the The Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, and the U.S. International Trade Commission, among others. She has also published over 150 op-eds and columns, policy reports, and white papers and published research in the Mineral Economics journal. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and is a regular speaker at leading international mining and energy conferences, universities, and policymaker forums. Dr. Baskaran holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.


Dr. Duncan Wood is president and CEO of the Pacific Council of International Policy. He was previously the vice president for srategy and new initiatives at the Wilson Center, where he worked on supply chain policy, critical minerals, electric vehicles, and geopolitics of the energy transition. From 2013 to 2020, he was director of the Wilson Centers Mexico Institute and served as a senior advisor to the institute. He regularly gives testimony to the U.S. Congress, is a widely quoted media source, and has published extensively on a wide range of global issues. He is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 30 chapters and articles. He is a board member of Transparency International, Signos Vitales (a Mexican public policy research organization) and Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica, and is an editorial advisor to El Universal newspaper. Over the past decade he has served as co-chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF)s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption and has worked closely with the WEF on energy policy. From 1996 to 2012, he was a professor and the director of the International Relations Program at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City. Over the course of his 30-year career, he has been a Fulbright Scholar and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He holds a doctorate from Queens University.