MenuJust as President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Friday, February 28th, to sign an unprecedented US-Ukraine agreement on strategic minerals, Vladimir Putin came up with a proposal of his own, involving joint development with the U.S. of rare earth metals, aluminum, and hydropower in Russia. It’s trolling of the 99th
Category Archives: Geopolitics
Trump’s Tariffs On Canada Put US Energy Security At Risk
In a far-reaching move set to take effect on March 4th, President Donald J. Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign imports from Canada, a close ally and the US’ largest energy trading partner, as well as on Mexico. Additionally, a 25% tariff was announced on imported steel and aluminum. Canada is the largest supplier to the
Digital Transformation Can Enable The U.S. To Fight The Shadow Economy
On his inauguration day, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.” This illustrates the new administration’s emphasis on the global fight against organized crime, with a primary focus on Latin America. In addition to historically known avenues of illicit revenue
Russian Nuclear Energy Researchers In Europe Endanger Western Security
As international tensions grow, scientific developments become more crucial than ever to creating war-winning technologies. There is a reason the Manhattan Project was kept under strict security measures – and even then, there were leaks. Beginning in the 1940s, Stalin’s USSR used intelligence to steal America’s atomic secrets and develop nuclear weapons. Throughout the Cold War, the Soviets ran a
Hamas’ rule in Gaza has been disastrous for both Arabs and Israelis
President Trump has floated the idea of relocating Gazans to other Muslim countries so that reconstruction can get underway and recently noted that he is “not confident” in the durability of the current ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas while underscoring Gaza’s potential. “Some beautiful things could be done with it …,” he said, cautioning against allowing Hamas to prevail. “They didn’t exactly
Russia and Iran’s Defense Pact is a Challenge Trump Must Confront
Russia and Iran signed a mutual defense and security cooperation pact on Jan. 17 — just days before President Trump’s inauguration. Both nations are primary opponents of the U.S., demonstrated by Russia’s war against Ukraine and Iran’s attempts to assassinate Trump, its regular proclamations of “Death to America, death to Israel!” and its backing of terrorist proxies Hamas,
We Can No Longer Afford to Let China Do Our Rare Earth Mining
On Dec. 3, China banned exporting critical minerals such as gallium, germanium, and antimony to the United States. This came in the wake of the Biden administration’s announcement of new restrictions on the sale of chips and specialized chip-making machinery and software to China the day before. This exchange is merely the latest round in the ongoing battle for
New Sanctions Against Gazprombank: Too Little, Too Late
The U.S. Treasury has announced sanctions against Russia’s Gazprombank, a lending institution inexorably linked with Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom, along with fifty other small and medium-sized banks and forty securities registrars. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also issued a warning of sanctions risks for financial institutions joining Russia’s System for Transfer of
U.S. COPing Out Of Global Climate Leadership?
Clean energy shares in the United States experienced a significant decline following Donald Trump’s election to a second term. The WilderHill Clean Energy Index fell by 6.7%, with solar companies like Sunnova Energy International Inc. and Sunrun Inc. dropping as much as 51% and 29%, respectively. The timing of this downturn is unfortunate, as green
Russia’s Landmark BRICS Summit and the Specter of De-Dollarization
Last week saw a landmark summit of the BRICS group of nations, a nine-country economic bloc led by Moscow and Beijing, which drew representatives from 36 countries, including 22 heads of state. Held from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24 in the Russian city of Kazan, the event focused largely on “de-dollarization”—the idea of phasing out