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MAY 2022 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13 robust economy and resilient national security. Here is a strategy to be formulated from 16 vantage points: 1. From a supply-side consideration: Strategy to ensure a dependable, reliable supply of the critical materials where the U.S. does not have adequate or reliable sources, especially for those materials that are abundant in the countries that are or might be deemed existential or potential adversaries. 2. From a demand-side consideration: Strategy to identify the critical metals, minerals, and materials. 3. From a perspective of a new world: Strategy to secure strategic metals by revisiting the criteria in defining strategic metals in the new world in terms of geopolitics and a new landscape in the digital era. 4. From a perspective of import-intense metals: Strategy to "govern" the metals and minerals that essentially rely on imports, i.e., domestic production/ mining/refining is scarce or nil; particu- larly how to ensure resiliently cost- effective sources. is will engage the U.S. Department of Commerce, the International Trade Commission, and other agencies. What are deemed to be productive and effective policies and/or incentives to give companies that are in the position to produce the critical metals/minerals/materials? A farsighted strategic calculus may need to be a variation from those in points 1, 2, and 3. 5. From an economic standpoint: e role and the positioning of technological overmatch for today and the future (e.g., five- or 20-year time horizons). Strategy to cultivate a sustainable ecosystem and infrastructure to transition critical materi- als to useful products, thus adding value to the national economic well-being. 6. From a national defense and national security standpoint: Strategy to transition the critical materials to the capabilities for national defense and national security including combat capabilities in the new multi-domain combat environ- ment that the U.S. Army and the Depart- ment of Defense have recently been focusing on. 7. From a national investment and interna- tional trade standpoint: Under the intensifying clean-energy and environ- ment-conscious climate, a strategy for national investment to reach a more self-reliant or less import-dependent conditions calls for an open debate with an open mind. is requires engagement from multiple federal agencies and subordinate agencies. 8. To anticipate potentially emerging conflict minerals (metals) that are natu- rally abundant in conflict-affected and high-risk areas (countries, regions), and the strategy to "manage" such. 9. From the technology standpoint, to incentivize developing gaming-changing technologies. One good example is the technology that enables the use of less pure-grade (lower cost) nickel for batteries. 10. From an alternative material/element standpoint: Strategy to invest and develop technologies alternative to currently- defined critical materials that can meet the designated criteria. 11. From a viewpoint of competitive race, the plan to leverage new and leading technol- ogies (e.g., AI) to speed up the discovery of new mining deposits of essential metals and minerals (e.g., Co, Ni, Cu, Li). 12. From the "integrated bi-focus" of environment (climate-change) and economics standpoints with pragmatism: Strategy to revisit the priority of recycling