Blue Star NBR’s nitrile butadiene rubber facility in Wytheville, Virginia, May 2023. Photo courtesy of the author.
Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 14, No. 2, February 2026
By Scott Maier
The U.S. spent more than $200 billion to establish a thriving domestic semiconductor industry. It recently took urgent action to secure critical minerals and rare earth metals for defense, AI, and other critical technological applications. It took these actions because it is unsafe to continue relying on a foreign adversary, China, for critical goods and the raw materials used to produce them.
What all of the above items have in common is that nitrile gloves are required in their manufacturing process. While most people associate nitrile gloves with doctors and nurses, healthcare represents only 30% of their use. The majority of gloves, 50%-60%, are used in an industrial setting. All of the critical manufacturing areas where the Department of War is supporting reshoring efforts require workers to wear gloves: critical minerals, rare earth elements, composite materials, batteries, industrial magnets, and energetics (TNT, C4 and other explosives).
