Circular Economy in Strategic Value Chains: A Resilience-Driven Response

Underpinned by the growing global tensions between decarbonisation objectives on the one hand and economic security on the other, this book aims to contribute to, and advance the debates on economic (de)globalization, the politics of circularity, and the securitization and reconfiguration of global value chain (GVC). We argue that the factors driving the inclusion of circular economy into GVCs over the last 20 years have been changing, away from purely environmental drivers or economic cost-cutting, towards growing security concerns.  Moreover, this book aims to find out if the increased incorporation of and changing attitudes towards circular economy are actually affecting the reconfiguration of GVCs. Our hypothesis is that the increasing incorporation of circular economy in the production processes is having an impact on GVCs governance structures. By building on the well-established GVC governance literature and the growing literature on the drivers and obstacles behind GVC reconfigurations, and by offering well-substantiated evidence across three strategic value chains (titanium metal, batteries, and solar PV) and three political entities (China, the United States and the European Union), we show how the circular economy, in particular, has become an important business strategy and policy objective in relation to strategic value chains. We additionally demonstrate that this strategy is driven by three factors: environmental, economic and security. This research is based on several sources: first, an in-depth analysis of primary materials (policies, industrial strategies and relevant companies’ portfolios and data) in several languages; second, extensive qualitative field research consisting of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with key policy and industrial actors across the three value chains and countries; third, quantitative insights ranging from descriptive statistics to ad hoc modelling exercises, building upon international trade and life cycle datasets, particularly those collecting information on recycling and re-use of raw materials and products.