Episode 4
The American offset model lets the United States outsource the visible costs of mining, emissions, standards, and consumption while preserving a cleaner story about itself. This episode connects copper, carbon, supply chains, and geopolitical risk.
A resource-policy contradiction: America needs copper, but often blocks the mining and supply chains it depends on.
America needs copper and strategic minerals for energy, defense, and industrial resilience, but its own permitting and political choices often block the mines it says it needs. This episode examines the contradiction between clean-energy ambition, resource dependence, and policy reality.
Read episode pageSource episodeKoffi Kouakou and Michael Brown discuss Africa's youth surge, technology, and the competing paths toward transformation or instability.
Michael Brown concludes a three-part North-South dialogue with longtime colleague Koffi Kouakou on African realities, American assumptions, and the China factor. They examine Africa's youth surge, technology adoption, political risk, and the race between transformation and instability.
Read episode pageSource episodeA discussion of critical minerals, Africa's bargaining power, China, and the risk of another extraction cycle.
Part two of a North-South dialogue with Koffi Kouakou examines critical minerals, China's role, Western assumptions, and whether Africa can turn resource demand into leverage rather than another extraction cycle.
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