CRITICAL MINERALSBehind Trump’s Peace Efforts: A Strategic Focus on Critical Minerals
President Trump has repeatedly claimed to have ended eight wars since he returned to office. Accessing critical minerals and resource extraction appear to be at the core of those diplomatic efforts.
On December 4, the White House released its National Security Strategy, detailing President Donald Trump’s plans for promoting his “America First” philosophy. The strategy includes a stronger military presence in pivotal regions, bringing countries into Washington’s orbit by negotiating peace settlements, and “securing access to critical supply chains and materials,” among several other priorities.
The document casts Trump as the “President of Peace,” a title that aligns with the administration’s efforts to present Trump as an expert peacemaker while he vies for the Nobel Peace Prize. The administration has touted Trump’s success in purportedly ending eight global conflicts during his second term, the most recent of which culminated in the ceremonial signing of a long-awaited peace deal on December 5 between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.
In addition to the DRC and Rwanda, Trump claims to have resolved conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, Kosovo and Serbia, India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, as well as the war in Gaza. His results, however, are “mixed at best,” Paul Stares, CFR senior fellow on conflict prevention, wrote about Trump’s efforts. “The eight cases cited as ‘cementing’ Trump’s peacemaking ‘legacy’ are all tendentious.”
These conflicts—and their peace prospects—are complex and varied, but several of them share one common denominator: the entangled countries have vast reserves of critical minerals or energy resources.
“The Trump administration has placed minerals diplomacy as a central pillar of its negotiations,” especially in “war-torn regions that are mineral rich,” CFR Senior Fellow Heidi Crebo-Rediker told CFR. This has largely been motivated by a desire to counter China’s decades-long dominance in critical minerals needed to manufacture many items, including automobiles, military equipment, and cell phones, she added.
“The United States must never be dependent on any outside power for core components—from raw materials to parts to finished products,” the National Security Strategy stated, underscoring the administration’s view that remaining competitive in this arena is vital to U.S. security.
Here’s a look at some of the mediation efforts that incorporate U.S. resource access and investment deals into peace negotiations, which experts say underscore Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy.
