Could Brics expansion be the new source of world tension?

The prospect of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping expanding is frequently framed by the members themselves as a way to rid the world of its current “unipolar” structure. Put simply: end the domination of the West.

That may be a major driver, but it is also interesting to note what an expansion of the grouping might mean for future global supplies of “strategic minerals”. This issue, you’ll remember, was one of the key planks in the Western fight against the then Soviet Union in the Cold War.

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Of particular interest in this part of the world at that time was the fact that the United States gave overt and covert support to the National Party government in Pretoria, using the rationale that the then important strategic minerals, including chrome and platinum group elements, should not fall into the hands of a Moscow-backed regime.

There was also concern about protecting the Cape Sea Route around the southern tip of Africa and the need to have that in the hands of a government sympathetic to the West.

It’s now been 35 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union began and, in that time, the world has changed drastically.

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The Cape sea route is still important in geo-strategic terms, but the appetite for minerals has changed dramatically in the Information Age.

Specifically, as communication technology explodes and the world battles global warming, the boom industries are going to be those connected with electronics, or green energy. And, many of those minerals – such as cobalt, lithium and copper – are owned by countries now clamouring to join Brics.

Could it be that we are about to see the Western grasp on the new strategic mineral supply slipping? And what could that mean for new source of world tension, or even war?

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