Raphael De­ber­dt

My research addresses the political ecologies and economies of renewed “green” and defense extractivism for critical minerals. I explore the ways in which states, firms, and communities overlap and engage in the context of critical minerals developments. I am particularly interested in the dynamics of conflict and the nexus between opposition and acceptance for these projects deemed strategic. Finally, I build on these insights to study the geopolitics of critical minerals and the ways in which Western countries onshore, reshore, and friendshore their extractive industries to compete with China.