Title: A Multilateral Commercial Stockpile for Critical Minerals
Author/Institution: Hoover Institution, History Lab
Publication Year: 2025
The Hoover Institution’s 2025 working paper A Multilateral Commercial Stockpile for Critical Minerals explores the feasibility of building shared reserves of cobalt, lithium, rare earths, and other strategic inputs through an alliance of democratic nations. Drawing on economic modeling, historical precedents, and scenario planning, the report argues that fragmented, national-level stockpiles are insufficient to address increasingly globalized supply chain risks. It proposes a pooled commercial stockpile managed through cooperative governance structures, allowing allies to stabilize markets during crises, counter supply disruptions, and reduce collective dependence on dominant suppliers such as China.
A central contribution of the paper is its focus on commercial mechanisms—such as joint purchasing, transparent release protocols, and shared financing—that would make such a stockpile both economically viable and politically palatable. By reframing stockpiling as a tool of cooperative market governance rather than unilateral national security, the study highlights how allied countries could collectively enhance resilience while avoiding the inefficiencies of duplicative efforts. It underscores that coordination would not only improve access for smaller economies but also create leverage in negotiating with major producers.
The analysis directly complements this week’s news on U.S. and allied efforts to secure rare earths and cobalt supply chains. While the Pentagon’s decision to reinitiate, cobalt stockpiling emphasizes unilateral U.S. security concerns, the Hoover study situates this within a broader strategic debate: whether resilience is best achieved through national procurement or multilateral frameworks. Linking back to ongoing developments in Canada, Germany, and the U.S.–DRC–Rwanda partnership, the findings suggest that isolated stockpiles may mitigate immediate risks, but sustainable long-term security will require collaborative models. In this sense, the Hoover report provides a roadmap for aligning short-term national initiatives with the larger goal of collective supply chain resilience.