Rare Earths & Geopolitics: Hard Choices for Europe

The convergence of the green and AI transitions has placed rare earths and other critical minerals at the center of an intensifying US China rivalry, confronting the European Union with a set of audacious choices if it is to achieve unprecedented levels of strategic autonomy. 

On 5 February at 5:30 pm, IEP@BU hosts an in person event featuring Sophia Kalantzakos, one of the leading international experts on critical minerals.

Kalantzakos will be in conversation with Daniel Gros, Director of IEP Bocconi, and Alberto Prina Cerai (ISPI Research Fellow) to examine how the European Union is responding to rapidly evolving dynamics in rare earths supply chains, escalating global trade tensions, and deepening strategic interdependence with China and the United States. 

The discussion will draw on Kalantzakos’s landmark book China and the Geopolitics of Rare Earths published in Italian as Terre rare. La Cina e la geopolitica dei minerali strategici by Bocconi University Press, which offers a rigorous analysis of how critical minerals have become a core arena of global power competition.

The event will frame rare earths not only as a strategic vulnerability, but as a concrete policy challenge for the EU, highlighting actionable choices for European industrial, trade, and geopolitical strategy in an increasingly complex world where interdependence has become weaponized.

Speakers
Daniel Gros Director, IEP Bocconi
Sophia Kalantzakos Global Distinguished Professor, Environmental Studies and Public Policy, New York University Abu Dhabi
Alberto Prina Cerai, Research Fellow, Geoeconomics Centre, ISPI 

Discussion moderated by
Stefano Feltri Communication Advisor, IEP@BU

^{IEP@UB and ISPI pay close attention to gender diversity and to the plurality of voices in the implementation of their initiatives. When this is not reflected in publications or events, it is due to the unavailability of the individuals consulted or to the inability to identify suitable profiles within their network.}

FOR INFORMATION
iep@unibocconi.it

In collaboration with EGEA