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A comment on Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals. Parent comment

Re:Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth m... by jmyeet on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @02:57PM (#40650075)
Norway isn't a lucky outlier. Norway's control over resource extraction is simply tolerated by the United States because they're a European nation.

When other countries try and do anything similar, which can include just broaching the subject of nationalizing resource extraction, their (often democratically elected) governments get overthrown in a coup by some fascist government with mysterious connections to the CIA who will always give production contracts to Western companies.

And if that fails, just starve ("sanction") them until they comply.

Examples:

- Guatemala (1954) [1]

- Cuba (1952 and the many later attempts to assassinate Castro) [2]

- Iran (1953) after the Iranian parliament passed legislation to nationalize the oil industry [3]

- Syria (1949) [4]

- Congo (1960) [5]

There are dozens of these.

These countries aren't mysteriously poor. They haven't failed. They have been active exploited and their wealth stolen.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Cuban_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iran_coup

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1949_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3...

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth m... by mywittyname on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @03:25PM (#40650405)
Not having a democratically-elected government overthrown by a global superpower because of their location sounds an awful lot like luck. Especially when the superpower in question has a habit of doing so.

There's probably more to it. The USA is powerful, but it's not infinitely powerful. The same strong institutions that have kept Norway from falling to the resource curse have likely contributed to its ability to maintain its autonomy with soft power. If Norway's government turned into a revolving door of corrupt dictators, it's likely the USA would have a different approach for dealing with the country.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth m... by jmyeet on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @03:39PM (#40650570)
Norway has resources, strategic geographical positioning (North Sea, Arctic, Danish Straits) and has proximity to the (then) Soviet Union so the US couldn't afford to lose Norway to the Soviet sphere of influence. The US couldn't risk another Iran.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth m... by jackothy on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @03:42PM (#40650605)
Do you have some more recent examples?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth m... by jmyeet on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @03:53PM (#40650738)
Cuba and Iran are ongoing so they're not exactly ancient history. Other recent examples would definitely include Venezuela and arguably Syria and Libya. Iraq and Afghanistan were more direct attempts at regime change (rather than using proxies) but still fit in most ways.
[ Parent | on HN ]