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Articles by Naoise McDonagh
China’s rare-earth dominance reveals the strengths and vulnerabilities of its distinctive political economy — and offers lessons for competitors such as Japan. In 2024, China mined 60% of global rare earths but produced 91% of refined oxides and 94% of sintered permanent rare-earth magnets. This dominance reflects more than geological luck, cheap labor and state subsidies, although each played a role.
The economics of economic security
The Albanese government has announced a support package of $2.5 billion (Opens in new window) for the Tomago aluminium smelting operation, framing the action as securing sovereign capability. Tomago is Australia’s largest aluminium smelter. It has nameplate production of about 590,000 tonnes a year (Opens in new window) – 37% of national primary output – and roughly 1,000 direct employees.
As world trade shifts to invitation-only clubs, Australia is facing tough choices
A profound shift is underway in global trade. Governments are moving beyond traditional free trade agreements open to all countries and embracing what are increasingly called “economic security agreements”. This means the international trading system is moving from a club open to all prospective members who can meet the rules, to invitation-only clubs where security competition between nation states determines who can join or is excluded.
As world trade shifts to invitation-only clubs, Australia is facing tough choices
A profound shift is underway in global trade. Governments are moving beyond traditional free trade agreements open to all countries and embracing what are increasingly called “economic security agreements”. This means the international trading system is moving from a club open to all prospective members who can meet the rules, to invitation-only clubs where security competition between nation states determines who can join or is excluded.
As world trade shifts to invitation-only clubs, Australia is facing tough choices
© 2026 Tolerance.ca ® Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. All information reproduced on the Web pages of www.tolerance.ca (including articles, images, photographs, and logos) is protected by intellectual property rights owned by Tolerance.ca ® Inc. or, in certain cases, by its author. Any reproduction of the information for use other than personal use is prohibited.
As world trade shifts to invitation-only clubs, Australia is facing tough choices
A profound shift is underway in global trade. Governments are moving beyond traditional free trade agreements open to all countries and embracing what are increasingly called “economic security agreements”. This means the international trading system is moving from a club open to all prospective members who can meet the rules, to invitation-only clubs where security competition between nation states determines who can join or is excluded.
Rebalancing Australia’s strategic industrial policy for the critical-mineral future
While the government’s Future Made in Australia Act is framed as an economic security initiative, its largest funding commitments are directed toward carbon abatement rather than the preservation of broad-based industrial capability. This imbalance becomes clear when considering gallium, now listed as a priority mineral for Australia’s critical minerals strategic reserve. Gallium cannot be produced without bauxite refining, yet Australia’s refining sector is under growing strain.
What the US-Australia rare earth deal means for China
Australia and the US have struck a multi-billion-dollar deal to challenge China’s dominance in rare earths. But breaking Beijing’s near-monopoly will demand more than investment — it will test the foundations of the global economic order itself, argues academic Naoise McDonagh. Australia and the US have signed a joint multi-billion-dollar investment agreement to turbo-charge both countries’ rare earth industries, with Australia now positioned as the key strategic supplier to the US market.
Trump Tariff Legal Jeopardy and the Economic Security Trade Order
Major court cases are testing the legal foundations of Trump’s tariff strategy, with potentially sweeping fiscal consequences. If the Supreme Court upholds lower court rulings, a central pillar of U.S. trade policy could be dismantled, forcing a shift toward more targeted, security-based measures. Two of the most consequential court cases in recent global economic history are winding their way through the U.S. legal system.
More than Money: How Australia Can Help Build a Sustainable Strategic Minerals Supply Chain
Australia’s ambition to develop a critical minerals processing industry faces significant challenges due to China’s aggressive state-backed market dominance. Success hinges on creating an international security-based pricing framework to ensure sustainable diversification. Australia is seeking to move up the value chain in critical mineral processing as part of a geoeconomic strategy to reduce global supply dependence on China.
US-China competition, world order and economic decoupling: insights from cultural realism
Shifts in the balance of state power have historically generated geopolitical and economic tensions (Friedberg Citation2011; Gilpin Citation1981; Ikenberry Citation2008; Mearsheimer Citation2001). Economic tensions arise because the question of who controls international flows of economic resources is fundamentally a strategic issue.
Aluminium exports under fire: Is Australia really to blame?
US President Donald Trump has claimed Australia broke a 2018 verbal agreement on restraining Australian aluminium exports to America. That deal, successfully negotiated by the Turnbull government, had provided Australia with an exemption from Trump’s global steel and aluminium import tariffs during his first term.
Trump’s Tariff War: Economic Coercion, Global Instability, and the Erosion of US Soft Power
Donald Trump seems to be turning tariffs, which can serve as a legitimate tool to achieve the goals of fair trade and the protection of key national security interests, into an illegitimate tool of coercive statecraft.
Critical minerals are key to economic security - Openforum
Minerals deemed “critical” are key inputs in a host of military and green-transition technologies, as well as vital to industry more broadly. Depending on China for 60 percent of world-wide production and 85 percent of processing capacity in these minerals is a growing risk, given Beijing regularly engages in economic coercion. Recent export controls on germanium and gallium highlight the point.
Critical Minerals and the Race for Economic Security - Australian Institute of International Affairs
Critical minerals are a major economic resource for Australia’s future. Crucially, these minerals are no longer just economic resources, but a matter of economic security. Minerals deemed “critical” are key inputs in a host of military and green-transition technologies, as well as vital to industry more broadly. Depending on China for 60 percent of world-wide production and 85 percent of processing capacity in these minerals is a growing risk, given Beijing regularly engages in economic coercion.
Blackbird-backed Kiki's cofounder is now rebuilding the short-term rental startup one coffee at a time
The New York-based cofounder of New Zealand subletting startup Kiki, Toby Thomas-Smith, is blunt in his own performance assessment. “When we launched Kiki.nyc last year I fucked up,” he’s written on LinkedIn, after the business shuttered its New York launch after 3 months, only to revive it late last month amid controversy over plans to launch a “girls only club” called Girls Who NYC in the Big Apple.
Tassie carbon accounting startup banks $5.3 million Seed round
US climate tech investor Sophie Purdom has made her first international investment via her New York VC fund Planeteer Capital, leading a $5.3 million Seed round. Purdom visited Sydney late last year as a keynote speaker at Climate Salad‘s Climate Tech Festival, which featured more than 50 Australian climate tech startups. The one she’s picked as her first offshore bet is Tasmanian carbon accounting startup Sumday.
How to use mindful breathing to manage anxiety
Anxiety is a huge issue that many in society go through. It is considered the most common mental health condition in Australia and America. had an anxiety disorder such as social phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder in the previous 12 months, while in America, over accounting for 19.1% of the population suffer from anxiety disorders.
Startmate Demo Day: KiwiFibre has turned a native New Zealand plant into something better than carbon fibre
From snowboards to satellites, the fibre-fuelled startup, helmed by a couple of 20-year-olds, has created a fibreglass replacement that is healthier, more sustainable, and superior in almost every way to its fossil fuel-based counterparts. The potential applications are almost limitless. Ben Scales and his co-founder William Murrell stumbled upon the idea of using natural materials to replace carbon fibres while studying at the University of Canterbury.
NDIS self-managed healthcare startup PlanCare pockets $2.5 million from Perth's new VC
Western Australian self-manage care platform PlanCare has topped up its Seed round to $2.5 million from existing backer Purpose Ventures. The new Perth VC originally backed PlanCare in July 2023, and the additional funding is the first follow-on investment from Purpose. PlanCare founder Dave Newman previously ran Morning Startup for more than a decade and launch his healthtech startup to help people access and manage home care packages .
Why the Future Made in Australia Act is us playing global catch-up
Australia is a trading nation. Its economy relies on a strong and open global trade environment. Australian governments have historically rejected protectionist industrial policies that undermine fair competition, and Canberra has long been a staunch advocate of the World Trade Organisation, whose rules help “promote and protect the open global trading system”.
Data analytics platform Diversity Atlas banks $6 million bridge round
Victorian startup Diversity Atlas, a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data analytics platform, has raised $6 million in a bridge round. The capital came via Canadian impact investment platform Gener8 VC. The Melbourne-based startup is looking to double the size of its current team of 35 as it expands into new markets in the EU and North America. It’s already being used in 40 countries across the globe.
Is the Future Made in Australia Act a gamechanger?
Australia is a trading nation. Its economy relies on a strong and open global trade environment. Australian governments have historically rejected protectionist industrial policies that undermine fair competition, and Canberra has long been a staunch advocate of the World Trade Organization, whose rules help “promote and protect the open global trading system”.
Australia is playing catch-up with the Future Made in Australia Act. Will it be enough? Original
Australia is a trading nation. Its economy relies on a strong and open global trade environment. Australian governments have historically rejected protectionist industrial policies that undermine fair competition, and Canberra has long been a staunch advocate of the World Trade Organization, whose rules help “promote and protect the open global trading system”.
Australia is playing catch-up with the Future Made in Australia Act. Will it be enough?
© 2024 Tolerance.ca ® Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. All information reproduced on the Web pages of www.tolerance.ca (including articles, images, photographs, and logos) is protected by intellectual property rights owned by Tolerance.ca ® Inc. or, in certain cases, by its author. Any reproduction of the information for use other than personal use is prohibited.
Hidden Lessons from China’s Coercion Campaign against Australia - Australian Institute of International Affairs
Common consensus holds that China’s recent trade coercion campaign against Australia failed. Yet the consensus view misses important political effects and economic costs of coercion. In late 2023, Canberra and Beijing stabilised bilateral relations after an approximate three-year period during which China applied a campaign of wide-ranging economic coercion against Australia. This involved China weaponising economic relations to punish Australia over bilateral political disputes.
Australia must play the geoeconomics game, or risk being side-lined
Last month, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated geopolitics is now the biggest global risk to the economy. Australian business leaders on the receiving end of Chinese economic coercion could have sent that memo to Wall Street two years ago. So could many of the world’s governments who have been busily implementing economic policy for a geopolitical world.
Standing together against economic coercion - Openforum
China has a well-documented history of engaging in economic coercion with trade partners. Coercion occurs when Beijing threatens to, or does, cut off existing trade flows with another nation in order to influence a sovereign government’s behaviour on issues of Chinese national interest.
Responding to Economic Coercion: Can Allies Be Trusted to Cooperate? - Australian Institute of International Affairs
Trusted supply-chains offer countries like Australia trade resilience and protection against economic coercion. Australia can trust its allies and partners when it comes to trade sanctions and economic coercion mitigation. China has a well-documented history of engaging in economic coercion with trade partners.
“Friend-Shoring”: From Rhetoric to Reality and Options for Australia - Australian Institute of International Affairs
Greater organisation for the protection of critical minerals industries from economic coercion is on the agenda for major nations, with China’s actions providing a catalyst. A key platform for the agenda will be May’s G7 summit in Hiroshima. “Friend-shoring” as a policy idea has gained traction in recent years, receiving significant media coverage in 2022 when U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen used the term in a speech at Korean conglomerate LG’s Science Park in Seoul.
AUKUS and intellectual property
While nuclear-powered submarines steal much of the media limelight, the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is about much more than the submersible warships. And it is headed for a critical phase. The partnership will include additional cooperation in defence-related science and technology, industrial production and supply chains, and cyber and AI capability.
Mapping a Future Marshall Plan for Ukraine - Australian Institute of International Affairs
The Marshall Plan is again in the news. This is due to its upcoming 75th anniversary as well as the need to discuss post conflict reconstruction in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz explicitly called for the adoption of a Marshall Plan for Ukraine in June 2022. Estimates put the total of damages to Ukraine’s infrastructure caused by Vladimir Putin’s criminal war of aggression against Ukraine at US $110 billion as of August 2022.
Rebuilding a Geoeconomically Secure Indo-Pacific Economic Order - Australian Institute of International Affairs
A comprehensive and coherent package of investment aimed at “like-minded” partners is needed to rebuild prosperity and counter China’s growing economic leverage in the Indo-Pacific. While there are various existing frameworks, these are either narrowly aimed or underdeveloped, and require a bigger picture view of the regional security-economy architecture. Future US-Australian cooperation to combat economic coercion by China in the Indo-Pacific was recently announced.
All told, Australian sanctions will have almost zero consequences for Russia
The economic sanctions Australia has imposed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine are an extension of those applied in 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimea.
The missing anchor: Why the EU should join the CPTPP
Since its inception in 1995, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has largely failed to make substantial progress on twenty-first-century trade issues.
Can the China Model Be Accommodated in the CPTPP?
By Naoise McDonagh On September 16, China officially applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) comprising Australia and 10 other members. The free-trade pact is the most extensive in the region, and accounts for almost 14% of global GDP.
Can the China Model Be Accommodated in the CPTPP?
A rules-based trading system is the bare minimum that Beijing must agree to if it wants to talk accession. On 16 September, China officially applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) comprising Australia and 10 other members. The free-trade pact is the most extensive in the region, and accounts for almost 14 per cent of global GDP.
Can the China model be accommodated in the CPTPP?
On 16 September, China officially applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) comprising Australia and 10 other members. The free-trade pact is the most extensive in the region, and accounts for almost 14 per cent of global GDP.
Is plurilateralism making the WTO an institutional zombie?
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 2014 Trade Facilitation Agreement is the only significant multilateral agreement it has concluded since its inception in 1995. Against that success, significant failures stand out. The inability to complete the Doha Development Round launched in 2001 and the failure to curb fishing subsidies despite the decimation of global fish stocks indicates that multilateralism is floundering.
Is plurilateralism making the WTO an institutional zombie?
17 February 2021 Author: Naoise McDonagh, University of Adelaide The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 2014 Trade Facilitation Agreement is the only significant multilateral agreement it has concluded since its inception in 1995. Against that success, significant failures stand out. The inability to complete the Doha Development Round launched in 2001 and the failure to curb fishing subsidies despite the decimation of global fish stocks indicates that multilateralism is floundering.
Sure, let's bring production onshore, but it might not ensure supplies
The pandemic has changed the way we think about supply chains, in particular the chains that feed our need for food, medical supplies, and defence equipment. It has led Prime Minister Scott Morrison to frame access to supplies in terms of economic sovereignty. Andrew Liveris, now an advisor to Morrison, and a former Dow Chemical Chief and advisor to both the Obama and Trump administrations, is pushing for re-shoring of critical supply chains.
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