The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power is a 2018 book by Megan Black, Associate Professor of History at MIT.

[2] Black argues that the Department has been key to the expansion and exercise of American power, widening the scope of what is considered “interior” to the nation state through the guise of scientific and resource management.

[3] In the process, Black demonstrates that the Department has played a key role in reconceptualizing the Earth as a mineral repository and thus as a potential mining site.

Black argues that this global reach was a key to resolving the tension between developing mineral resources and domestic conservation.

[7] However, this approach has often been resisted by other states, particularly in the post-colonial period, and Black demonstrates that the Department has since increased its focus on charting and exploiting undersea and outer space resources.