In 2026, the United States and China are advancing competing strategies to secure critical minerals supply chains and strengthen their positions in the evolving international order. This article explores the key developments, policy initiatives, and strategic trends driving the critical minerals race, highlighting how resource nationalism is becoming an important determinant of national power and geopolitical leverage.
A never-before-used Dutch emergency law, a suspended Chinese CEO, and a Beijing export ban that nearly stopped Volkswagen’s production line. The Nexperia affair turned an unglamorous chipmaker into the flashpoint of an EU–China struggle over strategic industry. China’s swift retaliation revealed just how fragile Europe’s grip on its own industrial base has become, and how readily economic interdependence is now used as a weapon.
Beyond the usual rhetoric, the restored CCP–KMT meeting after a decade raises questions about Beijing’s cross-strait strategy and what the KMT under Cheng Li-wun is trying to achieve politically.
Hungary’s April election was closely watched as test case for illiberalism’s survival, and it presented a sea-change to domestic, foreign, and European policy more broadly.
The United States and China are increasingly locked in a competition over the future of artificial intelligence, but they pursue fundamentally different strategies. While the US channels massive private investment into the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), China focuses on three core pillars: maintaining political control over AI systems, achieving technological self-reliance in semiconductor production, and promoting open-source AI models as global alternatives to Western platforms. Through initiatives like the AI+ program and its latest Five-Year Plan, Beijing aims to integrate AI deeply into industry, infrastructure, and national security rather than concentrating solely on frontier AI research.
This article explores whether Canada is truly prepared to defend its Arctic sovereignty in a region that is becoming increasingly strategic due to climate change and geopolitical competition. As melting ice opens new shipping routes and access to natural resources, global powers like Russia, China and the United States are strengthening their presence in the Arctic.
While Canada maintains a historical and political claim over the region, the country faces significant challenges including major underinvestment, limited military capabilities, outdated infrastructure and so on. The article argues that to remain credible, Canada must move beyond their symbolic presence on the territory and invest in long-term capabilities and consistent engagement in the North.
Iceland faces various potential threats and opportunities that will inevitably change the country’s future and strategic independence. The current global shift towards multipolarity and unilateralism represents a serious threat to the autonomy of small states. A valuable option is signing treaties with more powerful states or joining larger international organisations.
The Faroe Islands represent a unique case in which a small geopolitical actor can pursue its goals with pragmatism and determination despite its size and limited resources. The Faroese economy is mostly dominated by the fishery sector, which is also the most relevant element influencing the islands’ autonomous foreign policy and international activity.
China has turned education into a geopolitical strategy, producing the engineers behind DeepSeek, ByteDance, and more. The question is no longer whether Europe has noticed. It is whether it can respond fast enough to matter.
Panama’s Supreme Court decision declaring CK Hutchison’s port concession unconstitutional has placed a commercial dispute at the center of geopolitical scrutiny. The controversy not only raises questions about legal certainty for multinational firms, but also highlights the strategic significance of the Panama Canal amid intensifying U.S.–China competition.
![[Analysis] The Hungarian election and its ramifications for Europe](https://i0.wp.com/thenewglobalorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20250621_174916-2-scaled.jpg?resize=941%2C200&ssl=1)
