Bentley Allan

Recent highlights

Regaining Geopolitical Advantage Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

U.S. foreign policy must be refocused for the United States to regain geopolitical advantage. Countries establish geopolitical advantage when they create exploitable choke points, eliminate adversaries’ sources of leverage, and cultivate wide networks of allies with a range of capabilities. In geopolitical competition, the key is to establish economic, political, and military freedom of maneuver, while supporting the autonomy and strength of one’s allies. Read more

Strategies of Green Industrial Policy: How States Position Firms in Global Value Chains American Political Science Review

The resurgence of industrial policymaking—particularly for emerging low-carbon industries—challenges social science theories that expect such interventions from centralized states or suggest that different kinds of states specialize in various forms of innovation policy. This paper argues that the new generation of industrial strategies is shaped by the industrial development challenges that policymakers face at the sectoral level. Read More

Establishing a Critical Minerals Club across North America Brookings

In the area of critical minerals, reducing dependence on China means working closely with allies and partners throughout the world. The upcoming USMCA review provides an opportunity to create a North American critical minerals club that significantly bolsters mineral production in the region. All three countries are heavily dependent on processed minerals from China, even though each possesses mineral resources and processing expertise. Read More

How America Can Win the Coming Battery War Foreign Affairs

To get others to act, the United States should create a public fund to mobilize its share of the requisite overall investment. The United States represents approximately 30 percent of the global economy outside China, so it should muster about $300 billion as its share of the total investment needed in the coming decade. A big investment is necessary if Washington hopes to maintain its economic might… The United States and its allies should also consider establishing price insurance for mineral producers, which would allow certain companies to sell a given amount of minerals at a set price. Read More

Getting Prices Right: Securing Critical Minerals Demand to Catalyze Canadian Mine Development Centre for Net-Zero Industrial Policy

In order to catalyze mine development, Western governments need to create demand-side certainty. This policy brief survey options ranging from price mechanisms to procurement strategies to stockpiling. The brief lays out a framework for evaluating different approaches and ultimately advocates for an option that balances public risk-taking and upside: contracts for difference. Read More

Electrons, Rocks, and Brains: Canada’s Power in the New Geopolitical Order Transition Accelerator

Canada takes its position in the global geopolitical order for granted. But the global energy transition is transforming geopolitics and the foundations of national power. The old geopolitical order was based on oil. Canada prospered under this order, but there is a risk that it will lose its position in the new energy world. Read More

Green Industrial Policy and the Global Transformation of Climate Politics Global Environmental Politics

The rise of green industrial policy has injected purpose and competition into global environmental politics. Efforts to build green industry have raised the economic and geopolitical stakes of environmental issues as states seek to position their firms in global value chains and reshore strategic industries. This could help to generate the technologies and political momentum needed to accelerate global decarbonization. Read More

In the News

Could Trump’s Favorite Word Double as Climate Policy? Foreign Policy

If the administration just pursued a carbon tariff, “I think you would basically be providing a subsidy to business-as-usual production” domestically while targeting foreign polluters, said Bentley Allan, an associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. “To me, it’s a great step forward because it’s half of the problem, but it’s also just half of the problem. So we would still need to have a coherent strategy for how we’re going to advance innovation, and that innovation should be clean.” Read More

Western Canada holds potential to become a 'critical minerals processing behemoth,' expert says Financial Post

“If you wanted to put together a critical minerals processing behemoth anywhere in the world, the assets that we have in Alberta to do that are just phenomenal,” Bentley Allan, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University and a principal at Transition Accelerator, said. “It has the chemical processing expertise, the clean power resources, other kinds of machining and precision instruments, which make Alberta a really incredible place to do this.” The reports come out as Prime Minister Mark Carney is hunting for nation-building projects to bolster the economy. Read More

Trump’s anti-EV agenda could boost Chinese car industry Politico E&E News

“I don't think there's a scenario here whereby we repeal the IRA and we put big tariffs in place, and we end up on top,” Allan said. The Johns Hopkins report analyzed investments that have been announced under the climate programs from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. It estimated the United States is on track to export $50 billion worth of batteries by 2030, including EV batteries. Read More

How Canada could try to capitalize on U.S. retreat from technologies of the future The Globe and Mail

“The fantasy is that we’re not already picking winners, that we’re not already making failures,” said Bentley Allan, a principal at the Transition Accelerator, a research organization, and an international industrial-policy expert. “We are already doing that, a lot. We’re just not having an honest conversation about it.” Read More

A millennial is building America’s first nickel-cobalt refinery The Economist

For building the battery supply chain “projects like this are indispensable,” says Bentley Allan, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Read More