Paul Josephson
Donald Trump’s views of wealth and power – the belief that control of real estate and minerals doth make a man – are playing out in the foreign policy of the second Trump administration. Trump wants mineral wealth that belongs to Canada, Greenland and Ukraine. Belief that minerals are the foundation of power is nothing new. Gold, silver, platinum and other minerals have been the fantasy of colonial powers for hundreds of years. Great powers have risen and fallen in the effort to expand abroad to secure this mineral wealth.
In the 21st century, the minerals that are essential to state power have changed in response to modernising electronics, aerospace, energy, communications and other industries. These minerals, too, have been subject to various efforts to control them. Cold War desiderata stimulated a new wave of mining in search of such strategic minerals as antimony, bismuth, gallium, germanium, indium, graphite, scandium, tungsten and uranium. A uranium boom for weapons and reactors led to the pursuit of nuclear material in Namibia, Kazakhstan, and the vast spaces of Canada, the western United States, Australia and elsewhere.
For Trump, this impetus is central. Trump wants Canada as the 51st state for its uranium, he wants Greenland for its proximate strategic wealth, and he desires Ukrainian minerals in exchange for the US’s past and continuing support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia.
No comments:
Post a Comment