Food Insecurity

Food, water and shelter. Americans don’t think about these elements much. We do have hungry and homeless in this country – a shameful and unjustified number to be sure – but mass starvation has been relegated to nations far, far away. Most Americans don’t think that such distant disturbances impact us very much, but they are often at the heart of the terrorism that plagues the entire world. It is no coincidence that the terrorist groups that have arisen are generally the have-nots attacking the haves. The desertification of vast tracts of land, as in Iraq and Syria (and now Iran), rendered millions of farmers and their families without their livelihood (farming), angered when their governments turned a blind eye to their plight, now homeless with nothing to lose, turning to extremists who pledged food and a path back to life. The very real political consequences of global warming.

Regional responses to this rising regional dissatisfaction – a global phenomenon actually (think Colombia and the FARC, for example) – have been pretty uniformly horrific levels of conflict, governments often turning on their own citizens, with brutality at truly incomprehensible levels. The migration of hordes of hopeless humanity to Europe has also triggered a “not in my backyard” populist, anti-immigrant sentiment that just might rewrite the history of democracy in the 21^st century.

Such reactive and repressive governments generally respond not to the plight of their homeless and destitute but to decimate the extremists (particularly their leadership) who have stepped into the void of governmental indifference or callousness: The new leaders of the angry constituents, the hordes who have otherwise been abandoned. Incumbent leaders are focused on their survival as the holders of power, challenging any factions or leaders who threaten their incumbency… that there are hordes of hungry hopeless people is at best a secondary concern, if there is any concern at all.

Because this callous disregard for hopeless populations has gone on so long, since incumbents have resorted to military solutions for decades, the whack-a-mole reality of “newfound” terrorism is so huge, so embedded into the consciousness of those afflicted and now so merged with notions of religious mandates, that it has become a deeply unstoppable and recurring force in the clash of civilizations. It is a stateless virus with an infinite ability to mutate and continue.

Which brings me back to “food insecurity,” which has increasingly been the deciding factor in regional conflicts. Here’s the headline as articulated in the March 17^th The Cipher Brief: “Food insecurity is not just a consequence of violent conflict. It’s a tool of warfare and authoritarian control as well as a possible recruitment mechanism for militant groups.” Access to medical aid is a spin-off of this basic human need. Understanding this core issue is probably the most essential reality to countering the festering terrorism that has so changed our lives, realigned global political relationships and now threatens our very notion of democracy. The Cipher Brief explains further:

Behind the curtain of violent conflict often resides a potentially devastating, long-term issue that demands global attention: food insecurity as both a weapon and consequence of war. Militant groups recruit the hungry with promises of the next meal, and states such as North Korea and Syria control food as a mechanism of internal power and psychological warfare. The problem of feeding the world’s hungry – many of whom find themselves in the crossfire of conflict – is only expected to get worse as climates change, populations grow and the rural migrate to booming megacities.

Background: Given the complex relationship between conflict and those experiencing food insecurity, those most in need of emergency assistance often reside in war-torn countries. This year, 489 million people out of the world’s 815 million hungry were located within countries affected by conflict, according to the World Food Program (WFP).

·         Affected countries such as Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia are in the midst of brutal wars, not to mention the conflicts in Iraq and Syria that have forced mass migration to Europe. In Yemen, 17 million, or 60 percent of the country’s population are in need of emergency assistance, with near 7 million on the brink of starvation. In northeastern Nigeria, where scarcity of food has not historically been a problem, 5.1 million people find themselves food insecure as a consequence of a devastating Boko Haram insurgency. After the drought that hit Somalia in 2011, claiming the lives of an estimated 250,000 people, the country is now undergoing another, leaving 5.5 million in urgent need of food aid. The South Sudanese government has declared famine in portions of the country, while the WFP says that nearly 4.8 million people are staring down starvation. In Syria, after seven years of brutal civil war, some 6.5 million, or 33 percent of the population, now face acute hunger.

·         While natural disasters and severe weather patterns have significant impacts on the availability of food, humanitarian assistance flows have recently shifted from providing global aid to victims of natural disasters, to now primarily assisting victims of violent conflict. Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department earmarked nearly $533 million in food assistance dedicated to conflict areas in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and other countries surrounding the Lake Chad region. The implications are clear: the displacement of persons, disruption of markets, decline of governance, and destruction of infrastructure caused by violent conflict can have a devastating impact on the vulnerability of populations to food insecurity, particularly those vulnerable to climate change.

[Emile Nakhleh, former member, CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service adds:]

“Our seemingly ineffective response to these humanitarian crimes is empowering terrorist groups, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS in Syria and AQAP in Yemen. Their propaganda focuses on their claim, which seems to resonate more and more among Muslims, that the U.S. is indifferent to the suffering of Muslim communities, whether in Syria, Yemen or Myanmar.”

·         It is possible that pervasive food insecurity can become a driver of conflict, perpetuating human suffering by prolonging war. David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, has said that food aid is “the first line of offense and defense against extremism and terrorism.”  The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan—the coordinating body of the international community’s efforts there – has specifically said, “There is a possibility that high food prices may be making young men more vulnerable for recruitment by anti-government elements, including the Taliban.”

Using food as a weapon of control by dictators, such as Assad, constitutes a crime against humanity because causing famine and starvation on a group of people systematically for the purpose of control, according to human rights organizations, is prohibited under international law. The psychological impact is one of fear and desperation, which Assad and his key patron Russia are sowing in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. The Trump administration has mildly condemned the targeting of food supplied by the Assad regime and has not done much, if anything, to stop it. Key Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have also remained silent on this issue, primarily because they are employing a similar weapon against the Houthis in Yemen.”

In the end, we either see the core issue or we do not. “Defeating terrorism” sounds noble and just, but it ignores the reality that in an overpopulated world with increasingly scarce resources, hungry and desperate people with nothing left to lose, abandoned and angry, will resort to whomever is promising food and hope… and if their government (usually with global support) cannot do that, it is almost always a terrorist leader who will promise he can. This is a very long-term solution, a commitment that far exceeds the interminable 17-year American conflict in Afghanistan. That the United States is cutting foreign aid, that Russia is embracing Iran and Syria to goad the West, and that the West is rejecting desperate immigrants will surely make the world much more dangerous than it is today.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we seem to be incapable of seeing the obvious or rather completely unwilling to do much more than add to the military cacophony.