Latin America's Resource nationalism

Hye Hyun Son​

Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

alexandra0630@daum.net

Resource nationalism is blooming in Latin America as the political landscape has shifted to the left. Competition for securing lithium; a key resource for electric vehicles and energy conversion caused the rapid rise in demand and price of lithium. Latin America is a region where about 60% of the world's lithium reserves are concentrated, with Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Argentina pushing the nationalization of lithium. Not only the lithium-rich countries in Latin America is moving away from resource exporting countries but also proceeding the cooperation with China to modernize their production and economic structure with the high-value industrial model, leaving it as a new battleground for U.S.-China confrontation​