Lynas Rare Earths Production S Role In Global Order

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 The emergence of rare earths as a key concern in the tariff war waged by the United States against China provides peace think tanks and anti-war lobbies a golden opportunity to strategise on it in their campaign to bring a reduction in the escalating military expenditure and deadly armament proliferation.
On this end, the Donald Trump administration is concurrently egging on its allies, which, if unchecked, will lead to a less secure world.
Often forgotten in the fog of Western media war reporting on the Israeli-Iranian conflict, with its focus on rocket and missile launches, casualties and deaths, gains and losses, and victories and defeats are the metric of resources that enable the wars of today to be waged and sustained with greater intensity and destruction.
Rare earth elements in war
ADSThe critical role of rare earth elements (REEs) in advanced weapon systems is now common knowledge.
They serve as indispensable components due to their magnetic, catalytic, and optical properties and enable the high performance, miniaturisation, and precision that define modern military technology today and increasingly for the future.
Here’s a breakdown of how REEs are used in advanced weapon systems:
1. As components in high-performance magnets used in guidance and control systems of precision-guided munitions.
2. Found in various military vehicles, fighter aircraft, and submarines as motors and actuators.
3. Crucial for the motors, sensors, and electronic components in advanced radar.
4. Used in jamming devices, directed energy weapons and other systems that require high magnetic fields and precise energy control.
5. Essential for the small motors and sophisticated sensors in drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, prominently used in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
6. Used in various military communication systems to ensure secure data transmission.
In essence, REEs are the not-so-secret sauce that allows modern weapon systems to be smaller, lighter, more powerful and more effective.
This makes them strategically vital for any nation’s military capabilities, and why securing a stable supply chain for these materials has become a top national security concern for many countries.
The REE sauce provides China and supporting countries, especially Malaysia, with an unprecedented opportunity for advancing peace and deterring militarisation.
ADSREE as catalyst for peace
This is how China’s rare earth dominance can be positively used.
- Influencing military modernisation: Given that rare earths are crucial for advanced military technologies (missile guidance systems, jet engines, satellite communications), control can be used to influence the pace or nature of military proliferation.
By strategically managing supply, REE suppliers can signal disapproval and even discourage military build-ups and the development of destabilising weapons systems.
- Discouraging proliferation of advanced weaponry: The strict control of the sale of rare earths to business enterprises engaged in the armament and weaponry industry can help reduce the war proliferation risk and deter the rapidly proliferating trade in advanced weaponry.
- Targeted export controls for non-proliferation: China has asserted that its export controls on rare earth-related items are to safeguard national security and fulfil non-proliferation obligations.
If consistently applied to prevent the use of REEs by countries intending to use them for weapons of mass destruction or destabilising military technologies, this can be one of China’s most important, effective and significant contributions to global peace and security.
- Creating mutual economic interests: The global reliance on REEs for various technologies, including renewable energy and civilian electronics, creates strong economic interdependence.
This can act as a disincentive for conflict, as any major disruption would harm both exporting countries and their trading partners.
- Leveraging for peace and development: China’s rare earth dominance, as we can see from the tariff war, can be used as a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations.
Access to rare earths can also be used to tie the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Indo-Pacific countries, the Quad grouping, and Aukus (Australia, UK and US trilateral agreement) member countries to commitments on disarmament or non-aggression pacts.
- Investing in global partnerships for civilian use: Producing countries can proactively engage in partnerships and joint ventures for the civilian application of rare earths, particularly in emerging technologies like electric vehicles and wind turbines.
This can create shared stakes in a stable global rare earth supply chain to meet global climate change and green energy challenges.
REEs in reframing global order
While China’s rare earth dominance provides it with significant leverage, using this power to advance peace and deterring militarisation would require a highly strategic, transparent, and cooperative approach.
It would involve building trust, prioritising sustainable development, and demonstrating a clear commitment to global stability over unilateral advantage.
Without these elements, the potential for rare earth to be a source of more destructive militarisation may well continue.
Now is the time for China to extend its leverage of REE dominance more directly to the cause of peacebuilding and to use it explicitly as a tool in constructing a less militarised international order.
What about Lynas’ advanced material plant?
On our part, Malaysia can do more through the controversial Lynas rare earth production from Pahang, which needs to be rigorously re-examined on account of its dual military and civilian use potential.
As the biggest non-Chinese producer of separated rare earths, Lynas’ output is strategically significant for global supply chains supporting military systems.
While Malaysia, like most countries, has export controls on dual-use goods, it is necessary that the government implement stronger and more transparent control over our rare earths production and exports to ensure compliance with not only international non-proliferation and dual-use control regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement.
The government should also ensure stricter export controls, more rigorous scrutiny of the parent Australian company’s operations, and undertake other measures to ensure that the Lynas production is not diverted for military use and development.
Although the complexity of global supply chains makes control over end-use difficult, our policymakers must avoid the chase for foreign investment that brings about a less secure world.
The REE production from Lynas’ advanced material plant provides an important starting point for us to live up to our international relations rhetoric on war and peace. - Mkini
LIM TECK GHEE is an economic historian, analyst, and former senior official with the United Nations and World Bank.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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