Klinger in DW on Rare Earth Element Exports
Julie Klinger, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed for a recent article on whether China can prevent the export of rare earth elements to the United States.
Klinger was interviewed for a June 5, 2019 article in DW entitled “Can China Stop Rare Earths Exports to the US?”
From the text of the article:
“China invested in rare earth research and development from very early following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, first in collaboration with the Soviet Union, later independently in the context of its nuclear and weapons development program,” Julie Michelle Klinger, assistant professor of international relations at Boston University and an expert on rare earths, told DW.
“In the 1980s, when policy changes in the West and in China enabled industrial interests to relocate to places offering the cheapest labor and most lax environmental regulations, Western rare earth supply chain firms gradually relocated to China,” she explained. “But because China had the domestic expertise and industrial infrastructure, this enabled the industry to locate relatively easily.”
Julie Michelle Klinger, PhD, specializes in development, environment, and security politics in Latin America and China in comparative and global perspective. Her recent book Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes (Cornell University Press in Fall 2017) received the 2017 Meridian Award from the American Association of Geographers for its “unusually important contribution to advancing the art and science of geography.”