The alchemy of security: Tracing the genealogy of critical minerals in the age of green transition

Critical minerals have been placed at the heart of the European political project. Just like a philosopher's stone, the minerals cast a promise of both continued wealth accumulation and enhanced security. Rather than treating resources as pre-given, this PhD project traces how these minerals have been made—politically, economically, and epistemically—from the end of World War II to the European Green Deal and beyond.

The dissertation theorises how shifting problematisations of security not only contribute to environmental destruction but also seek to reproduce the ecological conditions of the security society by entangling biopolitical and geopolitical techniques and rationalities