A nation must think before it acts.
China’s Influence over Rare Earth Elements
About the Event
Over the years, China has developed a near monopoly over the extraction and refinement of Rare Earth Elements (REE), the necessary components of products such as cellphones, hard drives, hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen TVs. But, as China's influence over REE and the supply chains grows, many nations are searching for solutions that limit their environmental impact and exclude China from their production. This, in turn, is causing China to retaliate in uncertain ways. What exactly are these elements, how do they fit into the global supply chain, and why should we care that China has a monopoly over their extraction? And what can be done about the environmental impact of REE mining causing natural disasters? Join FPRI's June Teufel Dreyer and the University of Delaware's Saleem Ali and Julie Klinger to explore these questions and yours in this installment of the FPRI-UDel First State Series.
To read Dr. Dreyer's article on Rare Earth Elements prior to the event, click here.
To purchase Julie Klinger's book on Rare Earth Elements, click here.
The First State Series is a new collaboration between FPRI and the University of Delaware. Hosted by Dr. Saleem Ali, this series draws on FPRI’s vast network of scholars and outside experts to highlight the the intersection of ecology, the environment, and foreign policy. Dr. Ali is an environmental security scholar who holds the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professorship in Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, and is also a Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment.
Registration
To register for this event, click here.
For more information please contact our Events Coordinator, Kayla Wendt, at kwendt@fpri.org.
Speakers
June Teufel Dreyer - June Teufel Dreyer, a Senior Fellow in the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.
Saleem H. Ali - Dr. Saleem H. Ali is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, and the author most recently of Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability (Columbia University Press, 2023) and Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford University Press, 2022).
