We Have to Be Strategic About Strategic Material ProductionMarkets and free trade often fail to account for changing geopolitical circumstances.
By Mackubin Owens
March 6, 2022
The most important duty of government is to provide for the security of its citizens. Providing that security is a complex enterprise. Its most obvious feature is military power: providing the surface naval, air, and space forces necessary to protect national interests. Of course, military power depends on economic power. In today’s security environment, that means maintaining the capability to provide for both the prosperity of American citizens as well the high tech weaponry necessary for modern warfare.
While the world’s attention is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we need to keep in mind that the People’s Republic of China is America’s foremost adversary. While the United States dominated the “third industrial revolution” based on computation and communications, China seeks to lead the “fourth industrial revolution” based on metadata and artificial intelligence. China’s grand strategy is focused on achieving that goal. For example, Beijing has employed its Belt and Road Initiative in combination with digital technology in order to integrate billions of people into China’s economic sphere.
As I observed last fall in a piece for American Greatness, an important but seemingly mundane aspect of our competition with China is access to the strategic materials necessary for many of the advanced technologies that will shape the future, including clean energy high-end U.S. defense platforms. But for both domestic and international reasons, the United States is at a disadvantage in this critical area of geopolitical competition.
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Source:
https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/06/we-have-to-be-strategic-about-strategic-material-production/
