Most remember April 2020, when Americans rushed to local supermarkets to fight over toilet paper. The threat of lockdowns sent shoppers into a doomsday-style stockpile frenzy. Grocery store shelves were left barren. While inconvenient, this was a small-scale example of a supply chain failure. Today, supply chain issues go far beyond toilet paper. They are reshaping geopolitics and national defense.
In a world where nearly anything from China can arrive at your door within a week, globalization feels seamless. But beneath that convenience lies a growing trend: world leaders are using supply chains as tools of influence, pressure, and power. In today’s era of strategic competition, supply chains are no longer just economic arteries but also weapons.
What does this mean for the United States and our national security?
Supply Chains as Strategic Leverage
Modern geopolitics increasingly revolves around the control of trade and supply. Export controls, geographic chokepoints, and resource monopolies can all be leveraged to gain a competitive edge. One critical example is rare earth elements (REEs), a group of 17 minerals essential to the defense, energy, and tech industries.
Countries that dominate REE production can manipulate access to these resources. China, which has a near-monopoly on REEs, has done exactly that.
On April 4, 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and related magnets. The move, widely seen as retaliation for the Trump administration’s new tariffs on Chinese goods, directly targeted the defense, energy, and automotive sectors. U.S. companies must now obtain special licenses to access these materials, and China can choose who gets them. Of the sixteen U.S. entities restricted under the new rule, all but one operate in defense or aerospace.
This matters. In 2024, 70% of U.S. REE imports came from China. These elements are crucial to the production of F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles, radar systems, and more. Delays or disruptions in the supply of REEs could seriously hinder the U.S. military’s ability to maintain or surge production.
A Strategic Weakness
Meanwhile, China is rapidly expanding its weapons production, reportedly at a pace five to six times faster than the U.S. As China tightens its grip on critical resources, America faces a sobering reality: we are dependent on a strategic competitor for materials essential to our defense.
This is a glaring vulnerability. If geopolitical tensions escalate further, our reliance on adversarial suppliers could delay production of key weapons systems and leave us unable to scale manufacturing in a crisis.
What the U.S. is Doing, and What It Still Needs to Do
The U.S. government has taken some steps to address this. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, for example, invested $280 billion to boost domestic semiconductor production and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains. While this initiative focuses on microchips, it’s part of a broader effort to restore industrial resilience at home.
Another key tool is the Defense Production Act (DPA), which gives the president emergency powers to direct industrial production for national security. The DPA has been used to build up domestic capacity in areas like rare earth processing, castings, and battery manufacturing. With the act set to expire in September 2025, Congress has the opportunity, and in my opinion, the responsibility to reauthorize and expand it.
But more is needed. We must invest heavily in research and development, create incentives for domestic production, and identify new, trustworthy sources of REEs. Australia, for example, offers a viable alternative for critical minerals. At the same time, we need to strengthen our diplomatic and trade relationships. Power projection matters, but if other countries won’t do business with us, strength alone won’t be enough.
Conclusion
The U.S. defense industry, and therefore our national security, currently depends on cooperation with foreign powers, including strategic adversaries. In a turbulent global landscape, this is a risk we can no longer afford.
We need to bring essential manufacturing back home, diversify our resource supply chains, and let our independence speak for itself. In an era where supply chains are being weaponized, economic resilience has become a form of deterrence.