KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Today, environmental, economic and political shocks have pushed more than 250 million people into food insecurity. Climate change, extreme weather events, conflict, and supply and distribution issues are impacting what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability. Food insecurity can lead to social unrest, economic instability and political challenges — impacting individual countries and broader regions. Unpredictability and disruptions in food systems can open the door for food to be wielded as a weapon or source of influence by state and non-state actors. Along with the worrying human toll, these dynamics have important implications for U.S. and global security, which means that increasing the ability of global food systems to withstand these acute and slow-onset shocks is a U.S. security imperative.
Increasing the ability of global food systems to withstand these acute and slow-onset shocks is a U.S. security imperative.
Many countries and multilateral institutions like the U.N. already have extensive initiatives to combat food insecurity. But the nexus between food, climate and security is underappreciated, even though it has caused disruptions in global food security in recent years.
For example, the supply chain reverberations of Russia’s war in Ukraine, prolonged drought on the African continent and fallout from extreme weather events in the Indo-Pacific demonstrate the interplay between exogenous events and changing environmental conditions on global food systems. These examples demonstrate that food insecurity has global implications, where shifting power dynamics can affect local food access and availability continents away.
Some countries, like China, are capitalizing on their investments and innovations in agriculture to forge partnerships and assert leadership as an alternative option to the U.S., particularly in the Global South. This risks food security becoming yet another arena for strategic competition, rather than an area of international cooperation. If this pattern continues, it could lead to a fracture in the food system between the East and West that leaves those most vulnerable to conflict and instability behind.
To address these issues, both individually and at their intersection, there needs to be a better appreciation of how food, climate and security intersect in multilateral and bilateral engagements, better cooperation among the organizations working on these issues, and a strengthening of partnerships to leverage limited resources more effectively. U.S. leadership is essential for advancing these solutions.
Food is featured more prominently on the multilateral agenda than ever before. However, critical gaps exist in translating ambitious rhetoric into action.
In 2016, the U.N. announced that the next 10 years would be a “Decade of Action on Nutrition." Ever since, there has been a steady drumbeat of resolutions, declarations, and reports on the need for:
In 2022, the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution on the “state of global food insecurity” which reiterated the persistently high numbers of people living with food insecurity and the somber plea for more international efforts on food. Two years later, the 2024 UNGA and the U.N. secretary-general-led Summit for the Future continued to point to the importance of addressing food insecurity. Although there was not a specific UNGA food resolution, the overarching emphasis throughout the week was on reinvigorating multilateralism to ensure an international system that is responsive and effective in addressing the pressing security and sustainability needs.
Additionally, the Pact for the Future, the key outcome document of the Summit for the Future, explicitly recognized food and resilient food systems as foundational for sustainable development for present and future generations — though the link between climate, peace and security was cut due to objections from Russia and key emerging economies. President Biden also highlighted the “core necessities of food and health” in his UNGA remarks and noted the $150 billion that his administration has invested to make progress toward the U.N. Sustainable Development goals, including $20 billion specifically for food security.
At this year’s Climate Week on the sidelines of UNGA, the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) and USIP co-hosted an event to discuss innovative actions that can enhance the climate resilience of food systems for U.S. allies and partners and the benefits of these actions to U.S. national security. This event built on the recent CCS Feeding Resilience Plan to develop a greater understanding of how climate-related food insecurity relates to greater security risks and to discuss priority areas of action for allies and partners.
The U.S. has a long history of leading on global food security. Many critically important existing efforts such as Feed the Future, the World Food Programme, and Famine Early Warning Systems Network have been successful because of strong U.S. leadership and investment.
However, because of the changing environmental and geopolitical landscape, there is a growing need to balance existing efforts with more transformative change. In this context, U.S. policymakers should advance work at the food-climate-security nexus in a more integrated manner. An important step toward a more integrated approach was the release of the U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security, which outlines three actions: (1) assessing climate-related threats and opportunities; (2) partnering for an integrated approach; and (3) investing in collective resilience.
This signals a recognition that U.S. and global security are increasingly impacted by climate, weather and environmental shocks. Food security has traditionally been seen as a humanitarian and development challenge, but recent crises have demonstrated that defense and security actors have a role to play in long-term global food security. They have resources, expertise and relationships that can be leveraged to amplify traditional humanitarian and development assistance. This is not to blur the line between development and security organizations, but rather ensure that governments are leveraging the full suite of tools available for building long-term resilience.
Recent crises have demonstrated that defense and security actors have a role to play in long-term global food security.
The need for better coordination applies more broadly across the U.S. government. Policymakers and practitioners alike now recognize the importance of food access and availability, the intersection between hunger and stability, and the cascading benefits of mitigating fractures in the food supply chain.
There is a lot of work happening to address food security. But unfortunately, current efforts are often fragmented and not well coordinated. This marginalizes potentially relevant partners both within and outside of government and limits the opportunities for private sector engagement. Without coordination and future-fit partnerships, the food security landscape will be unnecessarily fragile to climate and extreme weather events and exogenous shocks, leaving those most vulnerable to food insecurity behind.
Lastly, urgent action and investments in food security require strategic patience and recognition that the major benefits will accrue over time. This includes investments in research and development to advance agricultural innovation, observation and monitoring systems that can support early warning and early action and developing food system “safety nets” to allow for faster recovery from food shocks.
Supporting resilient global food systems has benefits for achieving other U.S. development, humanitarian and economic priorities. Unfortunately, there is a growing Global North-South divide, particularly on the African continent, around perceived double standards and hypocrisy in multilateral dynamics. These perceptions are causing some countries to look to new partners for investments in food systems, risking a fracturing of the current food system. This lack of trust also creates skepticism around solutions presented by Global North countries, including the United States. Strategic patience in food security demonstrates to our allies and those countries in need of assistance that the U.S. is a committed and reliable partner.
The clear message from this discussion, within the broader context of this year’s UNGA and Summit for the Future, is that the multilateral system is overwhelmed with crises and struggling to rise to the challenge. Building more resilient food systems is an upfront, high-impact investment that can help reduce the burden on response in the long term. The United States and its allies need to provide reinvigorated leadership that can restore confidence in the value of multilateralism to address these nexus issues in an integrated manner that delivers co-benefits on the ground, not just in rhetorical statements. As world leaders prepare for a fall that includes the G20, COP29, and International Development Associate’s 21st replenishment, now is an opportunity for action.
Erin Sikorsky is the director at both The Center for Climate and Security and The International Military Council on Climate and Security.
Tom Ellison is the deputy director at The Center for Climate and Security
Siena Cicarelli is a research fellow at The Center for Climate and Security and the program director at the Nexus25 project.