The Effect of Food and Energy Security on Political Stability

The Effect of Food and Energy Security on Political Stability
Author: Mohamed Taher Sassi
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 71
Release: 2021-11-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3346542254

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: 10, University of Marburg (Faculty of Business Administration and Economics Economics & Institutions), language: English, abstract: Since both food security and energy security are countries’ strategic objective, this study typically advocates a deep understanding of the concept of political stability to incorporate food and energy security as a new pillar of conflict management based on an empirical understanding of the nexus and its effect. We used food deficit as proxy for food security and energy imports for energy security from the World Bank database. Suffering, mutilation and death of human beings are the most obvious and important effects of all conflicts, as well as natural disasters. Yet, material losses are also important because they reduce the livelihood and recovery capacities of conflict survivors. Moreover, in many cases, the indirect effects of conflict cause more deaths than direct violence. It has been found that generally the indirect costs of war are greater than its direct costs and persist long after the end of the conflict. Instability and conflict affect many economic sectors such as reducing foreign exchange earnings, which can have serious consequences for development and food security. Indeed, global population growth combined with the effects of climate change on agriculture pose the risk of a Malthusian trap to humanity that can only be avoided by a more efficient and sustainable production system. Energy security policies and climate policies are often considered as two sides of the same coin, their objectives being at least complementary, if not identical.

BREAD AND RIOTS: ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF FOOD SECURITY ON POLITICAL STABILITY

BREAD AND RIOTS: ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF FOOD SECURITY ON POLITICAL STABILITY
Author: Christopher S. Adams
Publisher:
Total Pages: 102
Release: 2013
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN:

Policymakers routinely argue that food security undergirds political stability within a country. Indeed, this linkage motivates much of US foreign food assistance. However, the broader literature does not substantiate this conclusion, finding most internal conflicts arise not from common grievances but from narrow avarice. Though some researchers have found empirical evidence that food security and political stability might be linked, these studies are burdened by data and methodological issues. Using novel data sources and a unique conceptual model, this paper seeks to address these potential problems. We find, in contradiction to expectations, that increases in absolute levels of food security significantly increase the frequency of events of political unrest in a country. This finding is robust to different specifications of our model, lending credence to its validity. However, we also find that increases in the relative levels of food security significantly reduce political instability. If true, these findings suggest that the US government might wish to reconsider certain assumptions that underlie its food security policy and consider alleviating relative declines in food availability in addition to absolute decreases.

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability
Author: Christopher B. Barrett
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191668702

Global food price spikes in 2008 and again in 2011 coincided with a surge of political unrest in low- and middle-income countries. Angry consumers took to the streets in scores of nations. In some places, food riots turned violent, pressuring governments and in a few cases contributed to their overthrow. Foreign investors sparked a new global land rush, adding a different set of pressures. With scientists cautioning that the world has entered a new era of steadily rising food prices, perhaps aggravated by climate change, the specter of widespread food insecurity and sociopolitical instability weighs on policymakers worldwide. In the past few years, governments and philanthropic foundations began redoubling efforts to resuscitate agricultural research and technology transfer, as well as to accelerate the modernization of food value chains to deliver high quality food inexpensively, faster, and in greater volumes to urban consumers. But will these efforts suffice? This volume explores the complex relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability up to roughly 2025. Organized around a series of original essays by leading global technical experts, a key message of this volume is that actions taken in an effort to address food security stressors may have consequences for food security, stability, or both that ultimately matter far more than the direct impacts of biophysical drivers such as climate or land or water scarcity. The means by which governments, firms, and private philanthropies tackle the food security challenge of the coming decade will fundamentally shape the relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability.

The New Politics of Strategic Resources

The New Politics of Strategic Resources
Author: David Steven
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2014-11-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0815725345

Since 2008, energy and food markets—those most fundamental to human existence—have remained in turmoil. Resource scarcity has had a much bigger global impact in recent years than has been predicted, with ongoing volatility a sign that the world is only part-way through navigating a treacherous transition in the way it uses resources. Scarcity, and perceptions of scarcity, increase political risks, while geopolitical turmoil exacerbates shortages and complicates the search for solutions. The New Politics of Strategic Resources examines the political dimensions of strategic resource challenges at the domestic and international levels. For better or worse, energy and food markets are shaped by perceptions of national interest and do not behave as traditional market goods. So while markets are an essential part of any response to tighter resource supplies, governments also will play a key role. David Steven, Emily O'Brien, Bruce Jones, and their colleagues discuss what those roles are and what they should be. The architecture for coordinating multilateral responses to these dynamics has fallen short, raising questions about the effective international management of these issues. Politics impede here too, as the major powers must negotiate political and security trade-offs to cooperate on the design of more robust international regimes and mechanisms for resource security and the provision of global public goods. This timely volume includes chapters on major powers (United States, India, China) and key suppliers (Russia, Saudi Arabia). The contributors also address thematic topics, such as the interaction between oil and state fragility; the changing political dynamics of climate change; and the politics of resource subsidies.

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability
Author: Christopher B. Barrett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9780198758907

Global food price spikes in 2008 and again in 2011 coincided with a surge of political unrest in low- and middle-income countries. Angry consumers took to the streets in scores of nations. In some places, food riots turned violent, pressuring governments and in a few cases contributed to their overthrow. Foreign investors sparked a new global land rush, adding a different set of pressures. With scientists cautioning that the world has entered a new era of steadily rising food prices, perhaps aggravated by climate change, the specter of widespread food insecurity and sociopolitical instability weighs on policymakers worldwide. In the past few years, governments and philanthropic foundations began redoubling efforts to resuscitate agricultural research and technology transfer, as well as to accelerate the modernization of food value chains to deliver high quality food inexpensively, faster, and in greater volumes to urban consumers. But will these efforts suffice? This volume explores the complex relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability up to roughly 2025. Organized around a series of original essays by leading global technical experts, a key message of this volume is that actions taken in an effort to address food security stressors may have consequences for food security, stability, or both that ultimately matter far more than the direct impacts of biophysical drivers such as climate or land or water scarcity. The means by which governments, firms, and private philanthropies tackle the food security challenge of the coming decade will fundamentally shape the relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability.

Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040
Author: National Intelligence Council
Publisher: Cosimo Reports
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2021-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781646794973

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security ?

Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security ?
Author: National Defense University (U S )
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2011-12-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

On August 24-25, 2010, the National Defense University held a conference titled “Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security?” to explore the economic element of national power. This special collection of selected papers from the conference represents the view of several keynote speakers and participants in six panel discussions. It explores the complexity surrounding this subject and examines the major elements that, interacting as a system, define the economic component of national security.

The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics

The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics
Author: Kathleen J. Hancock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 833
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190861363

"In many ways, everything we once knew about energy resources and technologies has been impacted by: the longstanding scientific consensus on climate change and related support for renewable energy; the affordability of extraction of unconventional fuels; increasing demand for energy resources by middle- and low-income nations; new regional and global stakeholders; fossil fuel discoveries and emerging renewable technologies; awareness of (trans)local politics; and rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the need for energy justice. Research on these and related topics now appears frequently in social science academic journals-in broad-based journals, such as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as those focused specifically on energy (e.g., Energy Research & Social Science and Energy Policy), the environment (Global Environmental Politics), natural resources (Resources Policy), and extractive industries (Extractive Industries and Society). The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics synthesizes and aggregates this substantively diverse literature to provide insights into, and a foundation for teaching and research on, critical energy issues primarily in the areas of international relations and comparative politics. Its primary goals are to further develop the energy politics scholarship and community, and generate sophisticated new work that will benefit a variety of scholars working on energy issues"--

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018-09-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9251305722

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.