Highlights

• Neha Mishra's analysis reveals the evolution of rare earth elements from industrial materials to crucial strategic resources with national security implications.
• REEs underpin advanced defense technologies, clean energy systems, and critical civilian infrastructure across multiple sectors.
• China's dominance in rare earth element production and export control represents a significant geopolitical leverage point in global technological competition.

A 2022 analysis by Neha Mishra (opens in a new tab), Research Associate at the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), New Delhi, has resurfaced as prescient in light of escalating U.S.-China trade and technology tensions. In her article “Defence and Civilian Applications of Rare Earth Elements (opens in a new tab)” (Air Power Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3), Mishra outlines a five-stage historical trajectory that reveals how rare earth elements (REEs)—though abundant in nature—have evolved into a tightly controlled strategic resource with direct implications for hard power, clean tech development, and global power competition.

Mishra’s core hypothesis is that REEs are no longer just enabling materials but constitute a structural pillar of national security and economic sovereignty. Her analysis traces REE geopolitics from their 19th-century industrial origins through Cold War militarization to today’s techno-strategic rivalry between China and the West. Stage IV and V of her model—China’s post-1980s rise to dominance and its regulatory pivot to cleaner, vertically integrated production—are particularly relevant today, as Beijing consolidates rare earth export control through licensing systems, military-linked usage disclosures, and crackdowns on smuggling, as reported by The New York Times this week.

Importantly, Mishra in the 2022 report details how REEs underpin not only defense platforms, such as the F-35 and hypersonic weapons, but also vital civilian systems—electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, nuclear medicine, and even agriculture. From radar-guided missiles and laser communication to wind farm magnet rotors and MRI contrast agents, her report maps REEs to the full spectrum of modern capability. As Washington scrambles to rebuild domestic supply chains, her conclusion resonates loudly: rare earths are not “rare” geologically, but they are rare geopolitically. And their control increasingly defines the global balance of technological and military power.