Call for paper: Navigating Disruption: Continuity and Resilience in Critical Materials Supply Chains

Navigating Disruption: Continuity and Resilience in Critical Materials Supply Chains

The Continuity & Resilience Review (CRR) will invite scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to contribute to a special issue focused on the manifold challenges and innovative solutions in development related to the continuity and resilience of critical materials supply chains.

The imposition of tariffs elevates the cost of imported critical materials, potentially making manufacturing in import tariff-heavy regions more expensive and less competitive. Furthermore, China’s export restrictions on key materials like rare earth elements, graphite, and other strategically important minerals directly threaten the availability of these essential inputs for industries worldwide, ranging from electronics and renewable energy to defence. This confluence of tariff hikes and export limitations is highly likely to exacerbate existing supply chain vulnerabilities, leading to increased price volatility, production bottlenecks, and an urgent need for diversification and resilience-building strategies across global industries.

This Special Issue’s focus on continuity and resilience in the face of such disruptions is therefore crucial for understanding and mitigating these emerging challenges. We invite contributions to address the dynamic interplay between potential disruptions and the necessary adaptive capacities, fostering a holistic understanding of how organizations, industries, and nations can ensure a secure and uninterrupted supply of these paramount materials in an increasingly volatile global landscape, including but not limited to:

Geopolitical Risks: Trade disputes, resource nationalism, and geopolitical conflicts.
Environmental Factors: Climate change impacts, natural disasters, and resource depletion.
Economic Vulnerabilities: Market fluctuations, price volatility, and supply chain concentration.
Technological Disruptions: Rapid innovation, evolving material demands, and the rise of new technologies.

List of topic areas

Assessment of Critical Materials Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
- Identifying and quantifying risks related to geopolitical, environmental, and economic factors.
Strategies for Diversification and Localisation
- Exploring alternative sourcing strategies, regional supply chain development, and domestic production capabilities.
Technological Innovations for Supply Chain Resilience
- Examining the role of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and advanced materials in enhancing supply chain transparency and robustness.
Policy and Regulatory Frameworks
- Analysing the effectiveness of government policies and international agreements in securing critical materials supply.
Circular Economy and Material Substitution
- Investigating the potential of recycling, reuse, and alternative materials to reduce reliance on vulnerable supply chains.
Organisational Resilience in the Face of Material Scarcity
- Examining how organisations can adapt and innovate to maintain operations during critical material shortages.
Geopolitical analysis of critical material trade routes and choke points.
Case Studies
- Real-world examples of successful or unsuccessful strategies for managing critical materials supply chain disruptions.

Submissions information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.