稀土成为美国对华关税战的关键关注点，这为推动和平智库和反战游说团体提供了一个黄金机会，让他们可以制定战略，减缓因美国特朗普政府正在怂恿其盟友，不断提升军事开支和让致命的武器扩散趋势，这趋势若不加以遏制，将导致世界更加不安全。
在西方媒体对以色列与伊朗冲突的战争报导中，常因聚焦于火箭与飞弹攻击、伤亡人数、得失与胜败，而让一项关键指标被遗忘在迷雾之中──那就是支撑现代战争得以持续、并以更大强度与破坏力进行的“资源”指标。
稀土元素与战争
稀土元素 (REE) 在先进武器系统中的关键作用如今已是众所周知。由于其磁性、催化和光学特性而成为不可或缺的组件，使现代军事技术得以实现高效能、小型化与高精准度，这些也正是当代乃至未来军备的核心特征。
稀土元素在先进军备系统应用细分：
1. 用作精确制导弹药导引和控制系统中高性能磁体的组件。
2. 用作各种军用车辆、战斗机和潜水艇的发动机和执行器。
3. 对先进雷达的引擎、感知器和电子元件至关重要。
4. 用于干扰装置、定向能武器和其他需要强磁场和精确能量控制的系统。
5. 对无人机和无人飞行器中的小型发动机和精密感测器至关重要，这些装备正广泛应用于乌克兰与俄罗斯的冲突中。
6. 用于各种军事通讯系统，以确保资料传输的安全。
本质上，稀土元素并非什么秘密武器，但其使现代武器系统变得更小、更轻、威力更大、效能更高。这使得它们对任何国家的军事能力都具有战略意义，因此，确保这些材料的稳定供应链已成为许多国家首要的国家安全关注。
稀土元素为中国及其支持国（尤其是马来西亚）提供了一个前所未有的机会，以促进世界和平并遏制军事化。
稀土元素作为和平催化剂潜力
以下为中国如何积极利用其掌握的稀土优势：
影响军事现代化 ：鉴于稀土对先进军事技术（飞弹导引系统、喷射发动机、卫星通讯）至关重要，对稀土控制可以用来影响军事扩散速度或性质。透过策略性地管理供应，稀土供应者可以发出反对讯息，甚至阻止军事集结和不利区域或全球稳定的武器系统研发。
阻止先进武器扩散 ：严格控制向从事军备和武器工业的企业出售稀土，有助于降低战争扩散风险，并遏制先进武器贸易的快速扩散。
有针对性的出口管制，以防扩散 ：中国已声明其对稀土相关产品的出口管制是为了维护国家安全并履行防扩散义务。如果中国能够持续实施稀土出口管制，防止其他国家将其用于大规模杀伤性武器或破坏稳定的军事技术，这将对全球和平与安全做出最重要、最有效的贡献之一。
创造共同经济利益 ：全球对稀土元素的依赖，包括再生能源和民用电子产品在内的各种技术，形成了强大的经济相互依存关系。这可以抑制冲突，因为任何重大的破坏都会损害出口国及其贸易伙伴的利益。
为和平与发展发挥杠杆作用 ：从关税战中可以看出，中国在稀土领域的主导地位可以作为外交谈判的筹码。稀土资源也可以用来约束欧盟、北约组织、印度洋太平洋国家、由美国、澳洲、日本和印度组成的“四方安全对话”（QUAD）以及“澳英美三方安全伙伴关系”（AUKUS）成员国遵守裁军或互不侵犯条约的承诺。
投资全球民用伙伴关系 ：稀土生产国可以积极参与稀土民用应用的伙伴关系和合资企业，特别是在电动车和风力涡轮机等新兴技术领域。这可以在稳定的全球稀土供应链中创造共同利益，以应对全球气候变迁和绿色能源挑战。
稀土元素重塑国际秩序
虽然中国的稀土主导地位赋予其强大的影响力，但要利用这种影响力促进和平并遏制军事化，需要采取高度战略性、透明且合作的方式。
这需要建立信任，优先考虑永续发展，并明确表明维护全球稳定而非追求单边优势的承诺。如果没有这些要素，稀土元素成为更具破坏性的军事化根源的可能性很可能会持续下去。
现在，中国应该将其稀土主导地位的影响力更直接地应用于和平建设事业，并将其明确地用作建构非军事化国际秩序的工具。
莱纳斯先进材料工厂定位
就马来西亚而言，我们可以就备受争议的彭亨州莱纳斯稀土生产项目上发挥更大的作用。该项目需要重新严格审查，因为其具有军民两用潜力。作为中国以外最大的分离稀土生产商，莱纳斯的产量对全球军事系统的供应链具有战略意义。
虽然马来西亚与大多数国家一样，对可军民两用产品实施出口管制，但政府有必要对我国稀土生产和出口实施更强有力、更透明的管控，以确保不仅遵守《瓦森纳协定》等国际核不扩散和军民两用控制机制。政府也应对莱纳斯澳洲母公司的营运进行更严格审查，并采取相关措施，确保莱纳斯的产品不会被转用于军事用途和开发。
尽管全球供应链的复杂，使得难于管制稀土最终用途，但我国政策制定者必须避免为了吸引外国投资，而让世界处于更加不安全。
莱纳斯先进材料厂的稀土生产，为我们在实践国际关系上的战争与和平论述时，提供了一个重要的起点。
林德宜《稀土：战争或和平》原文：Rare Earths For War Or Peace
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 strategize it in their campaign to bring a reduction in the escalating military expenditure and deadly armament proliferation which the Trump administration is concurrently egging on its allies and, 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 is the metric of resources that enable the wars of today to be waged and sustained with greater intensity and destruction.
Rare Earth Elements For War
The 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, miniaturization, 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 at play in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
6. Used in various military communication systems to ensure secure data transmission.
In essence, rare earth elements 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, an unprecedented opportunity for advancing peace and deterring militarization.
Potential of REE As A Catalyst For Peace
This is how China's rare earth dominance can be positively used.
* Influencing Military Modernization: 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 buildups and the development of destabilizing 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 fulfill non-proliferation obligations. If consistently applied to prevent the use of REEs by countries intending to use them for weapons of mass destruction or destabilizing military technologies, this can be one of China's most important and effective 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 Organization, Indo Pacific countries, QUAD, and AUKUS 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 The International Order
While China's rare earth dominance provides it with significant leverage, using this power to advance peace and deter militarization would require a highly strategic, transparent, and cooperative approach.
It would involve building trust, prioritizing 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 militarization, may well continue.
Now is the time for China to extend its leverage of REE dominance more directly to the cause of peace building and to use it explicitly as a tool in constructing a less militarized 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's output is strategically significant for global supply chains supporting military systems.
Whilst Malaysia, like most countries, has export controls on dual-use goods, it is necessary that the government should 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 policy makers 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.
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