Minerals
Today’s global economy depends on the availability of a wide-range of non-fuel minerals that are essential for the manufacture of everything from aircraft to computer screens. Consider that a modern automobile can contain up to 39 different minerals, according to the National Academies of Science. Despite the importance of these resources, including for defense systems, the vulnerabilities of the global supply chain is not well understood. It is hard to know exactly how shortages of these minerals would affect the U.S. economy, but it is possible to imagine a scenario similar to that of oil markets. The United States is limited in how much leverage it is willing to exert over a nation such as Saudi Arabia, which is crucial to global oil supplies and the U.S. economy; there may be similar constraints in dealing with major suppliers of some minerals in the future.
Our Work:
Strategic Vulnerabilities in the Mineral Supply Chain
If technology is the heart of the modern global economy, minerals may well be the lifeblood. Just as earlier ages of human development depended on copper and iron, societies around the world today increasingly depend on gallium, indium, lanthanides, and many other ores. As part of a new research project, CNAS will look at the geostrategic and security implications of global supply and demand for minerals – especially for the defense industrial base.
Click here to read more about our work on critical minerals.
Author(s): Suzanne Goldenberg
Source: The Guardian
Date: 01/31/2010
January 31, 2010 - CNAS fellow Christine Parthemore discusses the Pentagon's consideration of climate change in the QDR in an article in The Guardian, "The leadership of the Pentagon has very strongly indicated that they do consider climate change to be a national security issue...They are considering climate change on a par with the political and economic factors as the key drivers that are shaping the world."
| more |Author(s): Sharon Burke
Source: Defense News
Date: 10/12/2009
October 12, 2009 - CNAS Vice President for Natural Security Sharon Burke writes in Defense News on how the limited supply and access to critical minerals, including those used in cell phones and several U.S. defense systems, is a direct national security concern.
| more |Author(s): Zarrin Caldwell
Source: IPS
Date: 10/06/2009
October 6, 2009 - CNAS Vice President for Natural Security Sharon Burke discusses the link between critical mineral availability and national security. "The U.S. sends many of its minerals overseas to be refined," she said, but "very few people are looking at this issue in a strategic sense, or at what it means for the dependencies created in the U.S. economy and the defense industry."
| more |Author(s): Tabassum Zakaria
Source: Reuters
Date: 09/24/2009
September 24, 2009 - In his keynote address at the launch of CNAS's new report China's Arrival: A Strategic Framework for a Global Relationship, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed a dispute over tire imports from China. "U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said on Thursday he believed that China and the United States did not want a trade dispute on tires to spark a trade war."
| more |Author(s): Nathan Hodge
Source: Wired: Danger Room
Date: 08/31/2009
August 31, 2009 - CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore's Natural Security blog post exploring the security implications of rare Earth elements is discussed on Wired: Danger Room.
Follow the Natural Security Blog here.
| more |Author(s): Bryan Bender
Source: The Boston Globe
Date: 07/22/2009
July 22, 2009 - Bryan Bender of The Boston Globe discusses the congressional testimony of CNAS Vice President for Natural Security Sharon Burke. "The hearing was an important demonstration of the fact that global climate change is now taken seriously as a strategic challenge," said Burke.
| more |Author(s): Spencer Ackerman
Source: The Washington Independent
Date: 06/11/2009
June 11, 2009 - The Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman blogs about the launch of the Natural Security project at CNAS's third annual conference and remarks by CNAS Vice President of Natural Security Sharon Burke.
| more |Author(s): Christine Parthemore, Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Report
Date: 06/03/2010
In the 21st century, the security of nations will depend increasingly on the security of natural resources, or “natural security.” This report points to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Mexico and Yemen as examples for how natural security challenges within those countries borders are directly linked to regional stability and U.S. security and foreign policy interests.
| more |Author(s): Herb Carmen, Christine Parthemore, Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Report
Date: 04/28/2010
Broadening Horizons is an edited volume featuring four chapters and a capstone piece that explores the dual pressures of climate change and energy on each U.S. military service and combatant command and offers a road ahead to improve the country's ability to promote national security in the face of a changing climate.
| more |Author(s): Will Rogers, Jay Gulledge
Type of Publication: Report
Date: 04/25/2010
This report explores the gap between the science and policy communities and offers recommendations for how they can work together to ensure the United States can effectively plan for the national security implications of climate change.
| more |Author(s): Herb Carmen, Christine Parthemore, Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Report
Date: 04/22/2010
The Broadening Horizons capstone report, authored by CNAS Senior Military Fellow Commander Herbert E. Carmen, USN, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore and CNAS Research Assistant Will Rogers, provides an overview of the implications of climate change for DOD, the military services and the combatant commands, and makes recommendations to help the United States better navigate the potential geopolitical implications of the changing climate.
| more |Author(s): Herb Carmen, Christine Parthemore, Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 04/22/2010
In this working paper, CNAS Senior Military Fellow Commander Herbert E. Carmen, USN, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore and CNAS Research Assistant Will Rogers focus on the six geographic combatant commands as a way to address the effects of climate change and related energy security challenges on U.S. national security interests in regions across the globe.
| more |Author(s): Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 04/22/2010
In this working paper, CNAS Research Assistant Will Rogers synthesizes how America’s air forces are considering climate change, identifies the role energy concerns play in the services’ decision-making calculations and offers recommendations on how to better integrate energy security and climate change concerns into near- and long-term strategic planning.
| more |Author(s): Christine Parthemore
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 04/07/2010
In this working paper, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore identifies important aspects of what the effects of climate change could mean for U.S. ground forces, and highlights important questions for further research.
| more |Author(s): Christine Parthemore
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 03/11/2010
In this working paper, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore synthesizes how the maritime services are thinking about climate change and assesses potential policy implications.
| more |Author(s): Christine Parthemore, Will Rogers
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 01/24/2010
In this working paper, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Christine Parthemore and Research Assistant Will Rogers provide observations about how the Department of Defense incorporated climate change into the QDR process in order to meet its congressional requirement and some potential outcomes of that process.
| more |Author(s): Sharon Burke
Type of Publication: Working Papers
Date: 06/11/2009
In the 21st century, the security of nations will increasingly depend on the security of natural resources, or “natural security.” This concept paper outlines a new program of study at the Center for a New American Security to look at emerging natural resources challenges in six key areas of consumption and consequences – energy, minerals, water, land, climate change, and biodiversity – as well as the ways in which these challenges are linked together.
| more |Speaker(s): The Honorable Carol M. Browner
Type: Video
Date: 04/28/2010
The Honorable Carol M. Browner, Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, delivered the keynote address at the recent CNAS event, "Natural Security: Navigating the Future Global Environment."
| more |
04/28/2010
On April 28, 2010, the Center for a New American Security hosted President Obama's Assistant for Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner at an event on Natural Security, a CNAS program that examines how climate change, energy, and natural resources challenges affect U.S. national security. The event will also feature a roundtable discussion among top national security experts - including David Kilcullen, Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, Robert Kaplan and Christine Parthemore - who addressed how these issues affect the current and future global security environment.
| more |04/26/2010
April 26, 2010 - National security policymakers point to climate change as a key trend that will shape the current and future global security environment, but do not always have the scientific information they need to plan and prepare for the security challenges it may cause, according to a report released today by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
| more |04/22/2010
April 22, 2010 - The effects of climate change and the way we use energy are significant U.S. national security challenges. Addressing them will be increasingly important for our nation's defense. The new CNAS report released today, Broadening Horizons: Climate Change and the U.S. Armed Forces, examines the dual pressures of climate change and energy on each U.S.
| more |06/09/2009
WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 9, 2009 - CNAS has released several new reports and working papers for its third annual conference, “Striking a Balance: A New American Security" on Thursday, June 11. Topics include Iraq, Afghanistan-Pakistan, Natural Security, and combating violent extremism. Each report offers strong, principled and pragmatic recommendations on how to strike a balance between immediate and long-term national security challenges facing the United States.
| more |Speaker(s): The Honorable Carol M. Browner, David Kilcullen, Rear Admiral Philip H. Cullom
Date: April 28, 2010 - 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: The Willard InterContinental Hotel - Washington, DC
Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change; David Kilcullen, RADM Philip Hart Cullom, USN, Robert Kaplan, and Christine Parthemore spoke at a CNAS event addressing the effects of climate change on our national security on Wednesday, April 28.
| more |Speaker(s): Sharon Burke
Date: November 18, 2009 - 8:30am - 3:45pm
The Defense Attachés Association, in consultation with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), hosted their annual conference, Strategic Resources and Global Security Trends, on November 18, 2009, at the Embassy of New Zealand. This event, an effort led in part by Sharon Burke, vice president for Natural Security at CNAS, brought together defense attachés from over 40 countries, as well as U.S. military service personnel and civilian leaders at the Department of Defense, to discuss global security trends, including natural resource scarcity, energy security and climate change. Participants also included representatives from CNA, the New America Foundation, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
| more |Speaker(s): The Honorable James B. Steinberg, Dr. Michael Green, The Honorable James B. Steinberg, The Honorable Dr. Patrick Cronin
Date: September 24, 2009 - 9:00am - 11:45am
Location: Willard InterContinental Hotel's Grand Ballroom - Washington, DC
The Center for a New American Security hosted The Honorable James B. Steinberg, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, at an event marking the launch of CNAS' new report, China's Arrival: A Strategic Framework for a Global Relationship. The report examines the ever expanding U.S.-China relationship and proposes a strategy for future engagement.
| more |Date: July 21, 2009 - 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Location: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building - Washington, DC
Center for a New American Security's Vice President for Natural Security Sharon E. Burke will testify July 21, 2009 at a Senate hearing on climate change and global security. The hearing has been called by Senator John Kerry, D-MA, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing will be streamed live here.
| more |Speaker(s): The Honorable Judith McHale, Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig, GEN Jack Keane, Sharon Burke, Dr. John A. Nagl, Thomas E. Ricks, Nathaniel C. Fick, Dr. Kurt M. Campbell, Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman, General David H. Petraeus, George Packer, Professor Andrew J. Bacevich, Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, Lt. General David W. Barno, Roderick G. Eggert, Peter H. Gleick, Dennis C. Wilder, Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie, The Honorable John Warner, Dr. Victor Cha, Colonel Christopher G. Cavoli, Commander Esther J. McClure, Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard, Nazar Janabi
Date: June 11, 2009 - 7:45am - 7:00pm
Location: Willard InterContinental Hotel - Washington, DC
Striking a Balance: A New American Security was an all-day CNAS conference highlighting the major foreign policy and national security challenges facing our nation in the critical time ahead.
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