Breaking the Links Between Conflict and Hunger Redux

Abstract

This article revisits the authors' 1998 study on this topic (Messer, Cohen, & D'Costa, 1998). It employs a “food wars” framing to understand nutritional and political‐conflict status in countries experiencing protracted conflict‐related food crises and recent civil‐war situations that involve food insecurity. This framing includes typologies of conflict (pre‐conflict, active‐conflict, and post‐conflict) and food insecurity (food shortage, food poverty, food deprivation). It also incorporates related water‐sanitation‐and‐health and land‐grab issues that have multiplied since the early 2000s. Despite growing evidence of two‐way causal links between food insecurity and conflict, policy attention to these connections remains surprisingly modest. The article considers the implementation of recent major initiatives and programs aimed at addressing food insecurity–conflict links. It concludes by: (i) examining the implications for understanding and responding appropriately to recent Middle Eastern and North African conflict and hunger situations and (ii) offering recommendations for promoting sustainable food security and building peace in conflict countries.