The Political Economy of Critical Minerals: Energy Transitions and the Fractured World Order

Abstract

The accelerating shift toward renewable energy has positioned critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths, at the centre of twenty-first century geopolitics. Unlike fossil fuels, whose extraction was geographically concentrated, critical minerals are characterised by dispersed reserves but highly concentrated refining capacity, producing new asymmetries of structural power. This raises an urgent question: how do critical minerals reshape power, inequality, and governance within global energy transitions, and how does this configuration contribute to the fragmentation of the world order? The chapter addresses this question through a three-part analytical lens. First, it examines the securitisation of supply chains in the United States, European Union, and India, where access to minerals is reframed as a matter of strategic autonomy. Second, it analyses the emergence of a “green resource curse” in the Global South, where resource-rich but institutionally constrained states face renewed patterns of extractive dependency. Third, it evaluates governance gaps in the evolving critical-minerals landscape, showing how parallel regulatory blocs and weakened multilateral institutions accelerate system-level fragmentation. Drawing on comparative cases including China’s refining dominance, cobalt extraction in the DRC, lithium governance in the Andean states, and India’s resource diplomacy, the chapter demonstrates how critical minerals reconfigure sovereignty, interdependence, and legitimacy in a multiplex global order.