7/27/2019 Resources Policy Volume 7 issue 3 1981 [doi 10.1016%2F0301-4207%2881%2990007-6] A.H. Purcell -- National defence group sees resource war

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Resources reportsNational defence group seesresource warAcc ordin g to h e National Strategy informatio n Center (NSIC), Am ericas eco n-omic well-being and its national security are both threatened by the ncreasinginabil i ty of he United States and th e West n general to guaranteeaccess to heenergy and non -fuel minera l resources upon w hich our industr ia l economy isbuilt... We may be entering an era that som e fu ture historian wil l call theResource War :

NSIC, based in New York andWashington, is a long-establishednational security think tank whose con-servative ideology complements thenew Reagan Administration inWashington. As a consequence, whatNSIC calls the geopolitics of naturalresources is now being treated moreseriously than in past administrationpolicy-making activities.The NSIC recently established theCouncil on Economics and NationalSecurity (CENS) project which hastaken an in-depth look at the resourcesposition of the USA and its allies. Itsreport A Whi te Paper: The Resour ceWar and the US Business Community:The Case for a Council on Economicsand National Security, has been

received with a great deal of interest bythe federal government.The white paper paints a fairly grimpicture of long-term availability ofadequate strategic materials. It pointsespecially to chromium and cobalt;political instabilities and ideologies ofnations controlling these materials,says the report, raise serious questionsabout future access to them.The CENS report supports the con-cern expressed by conservative politi-cians who have studied resourcequestions, such as Harrison Schmitt, aformer astronaut and now a USSenator. Says Schmitt, Not far in thefuture awaits sudden recognition of amaterials crisis with the possibility ofmore devastating effects than our cur-

The Materials Forum -technicalprogramme under wayThe Materials Forum was created in he autumn of 1979, pintly, b y fourp rofess -ional inst i tu t ions concerned with materia ls. This was announced inResourcesPolicy in December of that year,1and the background to he format ion and theobjectives of he Forum w ere described . Since then, con siderableprogress hasbeen m ade, particularly with egard to developing a technicalp rog r amme .

At the beginning of 1980, a Technical J. Nutting was appointed as its firstCommittee was appointed to inaugur- chairman. The membership is made upate and manage the technical program- of people from industry, the umversi-me of the Materials Forum. Professor ties, and research centres such as

rent energy crisis. Former Admiral,Willam C. Mott, executive director ofthe CENS project, states that Assur-ing supplies of critical minerals for ourindustries may be the most importantundertaking ever to face (the USA).The report identifies four areas thatdetermine the ability of nations topursue independent national securitypolicies, or to conduct their collectivepolicies in an alliance, free fromexternal pressures:uninterrupted access to most of thepresent supplies of resourceimports;an adequate quantity of resourceimports;security of the trade routes;unimpaired ability to pay for theresource imports.

suggests that the businesscommunity, through factor(ing) intoits bottom line thinking these geo-political considerations, can greatlyincrease government awareness of theneed to take measures to increase thesecurity of national minerals andmaterials resources.A. H. Purcell

Technical Inform ation ProjectWashington, DC

A copy of the white paper is available fromCENS, Suite 601, 1730 Rhode IslandAvenue NW, Washington, DC20036, USA.

Harwell and the BNF Metals Tech-nology Centre. The expertise availableon the committee covers virtually thewhole field of materials - from supplyto end-use and disposal-and includes aprofessor of economics. The Forum isnot just concerned with metals - thePlastics and Rubber Institute and theInstitute of Ceramics both applied formembership and were admitted in June1980.First projectsFour projects were initiated at theoutset by the Technical Committee - astudy of aluminium supply and uses, anexamination of the recycling of poly-mers, listing and discussing strategic

RESOURCES POLICY September 1981 213