There is an important consequence of the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan that has gone underreported: This regime now controls the nation’s massive deposits of rare earth elements and critical minerals.

These coveted resources, such as the lithium that some are banking on to fuel the global transition to clean energy, could be worth $1 trillion. And China is making a serious play to access them. Every energy transition and climate model calls for more grid-scale energy storage, and lithium-ion batteries are the fastest-growing storage technology around the planet.