China and the Geopolitics of Rare Earths

Kalantzakos has produced a concise and well-written analysis of the role of China in the field of rare earth metals ... While China claims to follow free market principles at home and abroad, this account reveals with great clarity the strategies its government pursues in support of its economic and political interests. The book provides insights into a possible future trajectory of China's continued rise and is vital reading for academics and policy analysts in the field of international political economy. * Philip Andrews-Speed, The China Journal *
Sophia Kalantzakos's China and the Geopolitics of Rare Earths is a book that the broader political science and international relations community has needed ... Concisely and elegantly written, Kalantzakos embeds the specifics of rare earths within broader elements of 'geoeconomics', providing a political economy framework to understand them as another strategic resource ... This book is an engaging read, and fills an important knowledge gap about the rare earth industry for scholars of China and international political economy. It is also accessible for advanced undergraduates and masters students, and would provoke fascinating classroom discussion about emerging technologies, economic statecraft, and the rise of China as a 'geoeconomic' power. * Kristin Vekasi, Journal of Chinese Political Science *
China and the geopolitics of rare earths is an important and timely analysis of China's monopoly on rare earth minerals and the 2010 rare-earth crisis ... While China continues to assert that other countries need to look to alternative sources for rare earth minerals, it has 'carefully orchestrated conditions that ensure its own continued monopoly', an asymmetry that other international actors have been unable to counter. China's policies are therefore a source of rising international tension, which makes the analysis in this book and the lessons drawn from its case-study of increasing international and multisectoral importance. * Miriam Aczel, International Affairs *
[This] book suggests that we have much to learn about international politics and governance—historically and in the current age—via more attention to the rare earth elements that have recently become collectively famous (but that few of us can name individually). * Stacy D. VanDeveer, Global Environmental Politics *
With insight and informed analysis, Kalantzakos demonstrates how the 2010 rare earth metals crisis and China's monopoly of them may be a harbinger of world geopolitics to come. Given the vital role of rare earth metals to modern economies, Kalantzakos' book offers a comprehensively researched and incisively written account of one way the 21st century may be 'China's century'. It challenges conventional understandings of international relations and international political economy, and how we need new thinking to cope with complexity, technological innovation, and the dynamic between competition and cooperation as solutions to resource scarcity. This is an important book offering new ways of thinking about global geopolitics in the decades ahead."-John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy, Queens University Belfast
China and the Geopolitics of Rare Earths is a groundbreaking study of the newest global conflict over natural resources. Kalantzakos' account is immensely readable, and without any doubt the best study currently available of the political, economic, and environmental challenges of the rare earths crisis."-Christof Mauch, Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich