I

n an era marked by unprecedented global challenges, few issues resonate as profoundly as the quest for food security. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the grain shortage that followed showcased the grave vulnerability of existing systems. The imperative of ensuring that everyone, everywhere has access to safe, sufficient, and nutritious food looms large on the global stage. This month’s book bundle presents a curated selection of books that delve into food security, examining it from multiple angles, and offering insights, strategies, and solutions.

From the intricacies of international trade policies to the sustainability of food systems, and from the impacts of geopolitical conflicts to the strategic place of food, these books provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the realm of global food security.

Whether you are a policymaker, researcher, student, or simply a concerned global citizen, this collection provides valuable resources for understanding, navigating, and contributing to the discourse on global food security.

Food Security: Availability, Income and Productivity is a pertinent book that explores the pressing issue of global food security as our world population continues to grow. The author focuses on three key conditions necessary to achieve food security: food availability, adequate incomes, and increased agricultural productivity.

The book draws insights from history and contemporary contexts to thoroughly examine these conditions. It takes a close look at the obstacles preventing consistent food availability and discusses how to overcome these challenges. It also delves into the importance of ensuring sufficient incomes, highlighting programs like food stamps and food banks. Furthermore, the book provides valuable insights into the factors driving enhanced agricultural productivity.

Food Security caters to a broad audience, including agricultural experts, policymakers, and NGOs working in food aid. It’s also a valuable resource for students studying agriculture and public policy. The book not only informs but also encourages critical thinking about the complex task of feeding a projected nine billion people by 2050.

In a world where food scarcity is becoming increasingly worrisome, this book offers essential insights into the intricate web of food security. It provides a well-reasoned analysis that will contribute to ongoing discussions and efforts aimed at ensuring a sustainable food future for everyone.

William A. Kerr, Food Security: Availability, Income and Productivity (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023) ISBN: 978 1 03531 270 2, 234 pages

Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security by Matias E. Margulis is a groundbreaking exploration of the influence exerted by United Nations (UN) organizations within the World Trade Organization (WTO) despite their absence from the formal negotiation table. Margulis introduces the concept of “shadow negotiators,” illustrating how UN bodies strategically engage in political actions to shape multilateral trade negotiations.

The book’s primary focus is on the contentious issue of agricultural trade liberalization. It provides a detailed analysis of interventions by four UN organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (SRRTF).

Margulis unveils the innovative strategies these UN entities employ to influence global trade regulations. Importantly, he emphasizes that their motivation isn’t rooted in competition with the WTO or ideological opposition to trade liberalization. Instead, it stems from their concern that certain trade rules could negatively impact global food security, running counter to their core mission of addressing world hunger and safeguarding the right to food.

Shadow Negotiators is a meticulously researched work that offers fresh insights into the often-unseen dynamics of international trade. It’s essential reading for those interested in the intersection of trade policy and global welfare, making a valuable contribution to the field of international relations and trade studies.

Matias E. Margulis, Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security (Stanford University Press, 2023) ISBN: 9781503633520, 292 pages

Universal Food Security: How to End Hunger While Protecting the Planet by Glenn Denning explores the path towards a world where hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, and everyone can access healthy and abundant food for a productive life. The book emphasizes the need to transform our food systems, focusing on sustainability and environmental restoration, from production to distribution.

Denning, drawing from his extensive experience in over fifty countries, offers a practical guide to making healthy diets accessible to all while ensuring sustainability. He identifies key priorities, including sustainable agriculture intensification, robust market infrastructure, responsible postharvest practices, promoting healthy eating, and establishing social safety nets. The book underscores the pivotal role of practitioner-leaders in driving this transformation, highlighting the importance of education and development in instigating change.

But beyond the roadmap, Denning reminds us that the engine driving this transformation is practitioner-leadership, underscored by education and development. This book stands as a testament to the potential for meaningful change when individuals and institutions commit to reshaping our world, making universal food security not merely a dream but a tangible and sustainable reality.

Glenn Denning, Universal Food Security: How to End Hunger While Protecting the Planet (Columbia University Press, 2023) ISBN: 9780231197618, 448 pages

The Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Global Food Security explores the global food security implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which occurred during a period of already high food prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book highlights the importance of the Black Sea region for global food production and Russia’s role in supplying natural gas and fertilizers.

The potential disruption of trade in this region posed a significant threat, with the potential to raise food prices and worsen poverty and hunger in vulnerable countries. The conflict primarily impacted trade in cereals and vegetable oils, fertilizer exports, and energy costs, potentially pushing millions into hunger and poverty.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) responded swiftly by providing information and policy advice. They established a blog series and online resources to disseminate critical information rapidly. This book compiles these blog posts, offering an overview of the crisis’s progression, international responses, and lessons for ensuring food security in the wake of disruptions.

This book provides essential insights into a rapidly evolving crisis with far-reaching implications for global food security, making it valuable for policymakers and researchers.

Joseph W. Glauber, Ed. and David Laborde Debucquet. Ed., The Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Global Food Security (IFPRI, 2023) ISBN: 9780896294394, 196 pages

Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics, and Security in Putin’s Russia offers a compelling analysis of the pivotal role food has played in Russian politics from the 1917 Revolution to the present under Putin’s leadership. The authors, Janetta Azarieva, Yitzhak M. Brudny, and Eugene Finkel, argue that Russia’s transition from a grain importer to a global food exporter was a deliberate, long-term strategy aimed at enhancing national security and regime stability. This focus on food self-sufficiency sets Russia apart from other autocracies, as it prioritizes domestic food production over imports, highlighting its significance in maintaining autocratic rule.

The book’s relevance is heightened in today’s world, where food issues are once again at the forefront of global concerns and nations are emphasizing self-reliance. Bread and Autocracy provides a timely and comprehensive exploration of Russia’s unique approach to food politics, shedding light on its implications for both domestic and international affairs. It is a valuable read for those seeking a deeper understanding of Russia’s distinctive stance on food and its impact on political power. The book will be available in hardcover on September 1, 2023.

Janetta Azarieva, Yitzhak M. Brudny, and Eugene Finkel, Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics, and Security in Putin’s Russia (Oxford University Press, 2023) ISBN: 9780197684368, 525 pages

The world is in an era of permanent low-level conflict. Traditional conflict has largely left its place to grey-zone warfare and hybrid war. States have always used unconventional and non-military ways to acquire leverage or attain victory; however, the increasingly complex and interconnected current nature of the world has made interdependence the battleground.

From sanctions to competing for and buying influence abroad, warfare has taken a more subtle, sly, undeclared, unending, and, most importantly, unrestricted, form. Nowadays, this has blurred the line between war and peace.

While traditional war is very expensive, unpopular, and often too difficult to manage, this new way of war is groundbreaking and does not shy away from any tool available. War is all around us, in everyday life, culture, economics, law, and information. Even something as innocuous as cute cat pictures online can become a ploy.

Mark Galeotti takes us through the weaponization of everything, from disinformation, cyberattacks, and espionage to subversion and crime, in order to understand the changing landscape of war and what it might bring.

Gone are the days of “stable” warfare! The subtle components of martial and everyday civilian life are blending, leading to instability within countries and a legitimacy crisis across the globe. However, this development does not need to be a solely negative one. As Galeotti points out, conflict is democratized, meaning the people are not just bystanders and can take positive action to avoid zero-sum situations. The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War equips the reader with ways of surviving, adapting, and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by this new reality.

When everything is weaponizable, why would the distinction hold any meaning? Where do we begin to look? How can civilians be mindful of this development? Many of the weapons used are often abstract but their effects are very much tangible and jolting. As it turns out, some things are more weaponizable than others.

Luckily, The Weaponisation of Everything lays bare how this warfare takes form all around the world with examples and a future trajectory. While this form of conflict may be vague and confusing, Galeotti makes the topic apprehensible for all readers.

Even though technology advances in leaps and problems seem to be constantly evolving, Galeotti’s approach invites the reader not only to face the emerging reality, but also to learn to adapt to the new permanent, bloodless war. The Weaponisation of Everything, first released in February 15, 2022, is now available in paperback as of February 14, 2023.

Mark Galeotti, The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War (Yale University Press, 2022) ISBN 9780300253443, 256 Pages

E

lon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person until recently, has become one of the most controversial figures in the U.S. media especially after he acquired Twitter in October 2022. With the $44 billion buyout of the mega social media company, Musk has opened a new political front in an already divided country. His very first decisions, including reinstating former U.S. President Trump’s Twitter account, have made conservatives very happy while liberals have unleashed their anger against him.

As the tension is getting higher, Musk has begun to uncover some buried files related to Hunter Biden, U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, and his alleged business relations with China. Musk’s decision to float the relations between the ex-Twitter management and the Biden administration by releasing Hunter Biden’s story has shaken the social media platform. Under the Twitter Files tag, Twitter released ten different files to the public so far, and the fight between liberals and conservatives has just got more intense.

Musk’s Twitter takeover

Elon Musk completed his $44 billion buyout of Twitter on October 28, and immediately started to reshape the company. He fired some high-level managers and executives on the very first day, and told the human resources department to prepare for a widespread layoff. After paying $44 billion, Musk aimed to take the company to a profitable financial level by reshaping it.

As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, many people expected Musk to do a great job at Twitter too, even if his $44 billion buyout was thought to be risky. In trying to make Twitter thoroughly profitable, Musk has a challenging financial mission ahead of him – “Mission Impossible” for some market analysts.

From the beginning, Musk aimed to change Twitter’s policies from a far-left approach to a more balanced one. Musk’s “recalibration” approach is a kind of balance between the liberal and conservative wings, Democrats and Republicans, LGBTQ communities and anti-gay groups, abortion rights activists and pro-life advocates, etc. Mainstream American media has labeled him a pro-conservative antihero, yet Musk has described himself as a champion of free speech even if it needs a positive discrimination in favor of some groups.

Musk’s Twitter reinstated Trump’s banned account and did the same for hundreds of leading conservative figures whose accounts were suspended after the January 6 United States Capitol attack.  It’s still a matter of debate whether Musk is an antihero for liberal values or a champion for free speech.

Twitter Files bombshell

Elon Musk made a promise before he acquired the company: he would release buried internal Twitter files to the public in line with his transparency policy. Musk fulfilled his promise and released ten Twitter files, including internal messages, emails, and screenshots of journalists such as Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and Michael Shellenberger.

The first part, “Twitter Files-1” was released on December 2, and the last part, “Twitter Files-8.” was released on December 20, 2022. Starting with “Twitter Files-1,” which was about how Twitter handled Hunter Biden’s laptop controversy in October 2020, every file has shaken social media platforms and the media.

The first file was about how Twitter internally suppressed the Hunter Biden story through the platform in coordination with the FBI. As the U.S. presidential elections were approaching, the Hunter Biden story had the capacity to hurt Joe Biden’s election campaign. At the time, Twitter, alongside the whole mainstream media, chose to suppress the allegations by advocating that the material source was a hacked laptop so it shouldn’t be used.

Meanwhile, half the country believed that they had the right to be informed about the Hunter Biden allegations. Musk stated that he believes the same thing and released the details of how Twitter suppressed the story. After the first reveal, American media immediately blamed Musk with stoking the fire in an already divided America. Musk responded to liberal media by saying that it would be hypocritical on his part not to reveal the files exposing the corruption of the then Twitter management.

The second and the third files were about how Trump and certain conservative figures were shadow banned from Twitter starting in 2018. The following file concerned Twitter’s decisions in the days surrounding the January 6 Capitol attack, including Trump’s indefinite ban from the platform. The files have clearly shown that the company managers were leaning towards far-left political tendencies. The uncovering of such internal deliberations in Twitter, offered conservatives the proof that the company was shadow banning Trump and his supporters, and acting against conservatives.

The next two files were about the influence of the FBI over the company especially regarding sensitive political and/or national security issues. According to the files, the FBI helped shape the company narratives related to both the Hunter Biden story and the U.S. military campaign in Syria. In October 2020, the FBI reportedly guided Twitter on how to suppress the Hunter Biden story.

More interestingly, but not surprisingly, the FBI files have also revealed that Twitter has easily (even voluntarily) agreed with the FBI to allow some U.S.-backed fake accounts to promote American foreign policy and military interests. The FBI-Twitter “brotherhood” promoted widespread publications in the media and drew a backlash from different groups. According to the released files, the FBI set up a team of 80 agents to monitor suspicious accounts while Twitter made sure to help them as much as possible. If Musk hadn’t decided to make these files public, we wouldn’t know about the close FBI-Twitter cooperation.

During a visit to Europe while young, the former emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa was asked by an immigration officer at a European airport where the state of Qatar was located. Today, there is an airport in Qatar named after him, the Hamad International Airport, and Qatar has become a well-known Middle Eastern country, especially after its political role in the Arab Spring and its remarkable successes in the fields of media, energy, and diplomacy. As a strategy, Qatar makes use of soft power tools, including sports. The country’s emir and his close advisors realize the importance of sports diplomacy in achieving the country’s goals of becoming a regional sports hub.

Qatar has invested time and effort, showing a massive capacity in order to gain the rights to organize the FIFA 2022 World Cup, one of the world’s most important global sports events. Qatar will become the first country in the region to host this major sports event.

Prior to hosting the 2022 World Cup and the 2030 AFC Asian Cup, Qatar has hosted nearly 500 international sports events since 2005, covering all types of sports and age groups. For example, Qatar hosted the 2006 Asian Games, the 2015 World Men’s Handball Championship, the 2015 World Boxing Championship, the 48th World Artistic Gymnastics Championship, the World Handball Championship for Intercontinental Champions Clubs, the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games, the 2019 Club World Cup, and the Club World Cup 2020. Finally, it hosted the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup in December, and the Turkish Super Cup final in January 2022. In 2021 alone, Qatar hosted 63 sport events, including six world championships.

Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA 2021 Arab Cup was a turning point for a number of reasons. After a long interval of almost two decades, the Arab Cup was finally organized in December 2021 and took place in Doha. For the first time, all Arab countries participated in the event, which was professionally organized. The Arab Cup was first launched in Lebanon in 1963, but due to regional instabilities could only be held 10 times.

Technically, Qatar wanted to test its ability to run the FIFA 2022 World Cup with the Arab Cup, which was a mini-test for the World Cup scheduled to kick off on December 2, 2022. Naturally, beyond the sports, these international organizations are linked to Qatar’s national interests. Qatar proved itself very successful at winning over the hearts and minds of the Arab peoples who follow this tournament.

Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA 2021 Arab Cup was a turning point for a number of reasons.

At sports events, Middle Easterners a savor moments of joy and foster the feelings of brotherhood and unity, putting aside conflicts and regional disagreements. In April 2021, at the draw ceremony of the FIFA Arab Cup at the Katara Opera House, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that the Arab Cup, which took place for the first time under the FIFA umbrella, will unify the Arab world. He added, “The FIFA Arab Cup 2021… will be a great opportunity to unite the Arab world through football besides testing Qatar’s operational readiness for the prestigious FIFA World Cup in 2022.”

Meanwhile, the match that was scheduled to take place between Arab and world football legends under the auspices of the Arab Cup was cancelled as Arab players withdrew in protest of the presence of an Israeli coach. All the above contributed to highlighting the true pulse of the Arab peoples, and Qatar benefitted from allowing such freedom of expression.

Qatar does not limit itself to hosting Arab sports events and practices sports diplomacy in wider regions. The country recently hosted the Turkish Super Cup between Beşiktaş and Antalyaspor. On January 5, 2021, Qatar also hosted the African Super Cup.

Qatar advertises itself in a discreet manner through sports, especially since sports has a magic that can sometimes transcend politics and even contribute to finding solutions to political problems.

It is important to remember that one of the motives for the Gulf reconciliation was the desire of Qatar’s neighbors to benefit from the 2022 World Cup, whereby Emirati and Saudi airlines would see the benefits of transferring sports fans from all over the world to Qatar. Qatar has organized world sports events in a professional manner that is unprecedented in the region and has built cutting-edge infrastructure like stadiums equipped with the highest-level equipment and modern technology.

One such example is hologram technology, which was used for the first time in the Arab world in opening ceremonies, and in which a group of late artists sent messages calling for unity, brotherhood, and tolerance. These efforts have drawn praise from across the world, and continue to bolster Qatar’s image and reputation in both the international and regional public opinion.

South Korea has become a soft power giant with the effective promotion of its national image and culture worldwide. The country has already proved itself by producing high-quality electronic devices and with its automobile industry. The South Korean movie Parasite was the first non-English language movie to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards in February 2020.

There is a term for this new trend: Hallyu, meaning the “Korean Wave,” describing the quick transfer of South Korean popular culture to the rest of the world. The Korean influence ranges from K-pop to television programs, drama series, and various sorts of digital content.

The Middle East region is not an exception to this wave of Korean cultural influence. Korean dramas, music, and movies are received well in the Middle East. One reason behind Korean culture’s quick penetration in the region is the overlapping cultural sensitivities related to social and moral values such as the place of family in the narratives and the lack of nudity – nudity is more common in European and North American productions. According to Spotify, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria were the top five streamers of K-pop between 2014 and 2020.

The Korea-Arab Society (KAS) is a foundation established and funded by Korean and Arab governments to boost reciprocal cooperation in several areas such as arts, sports, culture, and economy. Korean Cultural Centers (KCC) were opened in Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi in 2011, 2014, and 2018 respectively.

On the 60th anniversary of South Korea and Turkey diplomatic relations in 2017, Turkey released the movie Ayla, based on a true story that took place during the Korean War. South Koreans call Turks “Blood Brothers.” The Department of Korean Language and Literature at Ankara University was established in 1989, and was the first department for Korean studies in Turkey.

Similarly, the UAE and South Korea have strategic partnership relations in several areas such as education, energy, and agriculture. In 2019, an MoU was signed between the UAE’s Barakah One Company and South Korea’s Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to improve cooperation on nuclear energy. Recently, in March 2021, during the Industry and Energy Cooperation Forum, the UAE and South Korea signed another MoU for collaboration in hydrogen economy, digital innovation, and transformation.

In August 2012, Turkey and South Korea signed a free trade agreement (FTA) establishing a free trade area, followed by two other agreements on trade and investment in 2015. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to South Korea in 2018 and met Korean President Moon Jae-in to further the cooperation on international affairs such as the refugee crisis, fighting terrorism, world peace, and security.

South Korea has always been politically neutral in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The country has shown sensitivity towards its relationship with Israel and has kept a balance so as not to risk losing its major trade partners in the Gulf. South Korea has maintained limited military involvement in MENA with some exceptions such as the first Gulf War (1990-91). In 2003, Seoul sent troops during the invasion of Iraq but kept its forces in non-combat zones. In 2006, South Korea sent 356 soldiers to Southern Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL).

A win-win situation characterizes the Korean-Middle East relationship. South Korea can continue exporting high-tech products to the Middle East and benefit from bilateral agreements in other fields such as education and social reforms. Yet, the country may also face the risk of being part of the U.S. military engagements in the region, given its strong alliance and partnership with the U.S. However, South Korea is not on this track. The cultural impact of Korean arts and movies has helped the country earn a worldwide reputation especially among younger generations who are more eager to follow Korean influencers and public figures online.

Two events in early January illustrated the growing control of social media and other Internet companies over political discussions and systems. Starting on January 6, hours after supporters of former United States President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., a series of tech giants, beginning with Twitter, moved swiftly to block the president and his supporters from using their services.

Along with social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit, and TikTok, media platforms including Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube, as well as marketing and financial services such as PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe, joined the near-complete embargo. Apple and Google banned Parler, a niche social network favored by the president’s supporters, from their online app stores before Amazon, which had hosted the service on its servers, removed it from the Internet altogether. Within a day, Trump found himself as silenced as effectively as the world’s most powerful man could possibly be.

On January 9, a number of Palestinian media companies and political organizations stopped posting on Facebook for two hours to protest the social media giant’s suspension of their colleagues’ accounts and deletion of their content. The gesture followed years of complaints about Facebook’s collusion with Israel and bias against Palestinians.

Zoom later blocked a number of events organized at various universities to protest its censorship. While these company’s suppression of Palestinian speech may have been nothing new, their obstruction of academic freedom at a public university in their home country certainly was, raising troubling questions about the role of private corporations in educational institutions that have, during the COVID-19 pandemic, largely become reliant on their services.

United States-based social media have previously waded directly into politics outside the country, often in ways seemingly conducive to U.S. foreign policy goals.

In 2018, after a failed attempt to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with a weaponized drone, Facebook suspended the pages of news site Venezuelanalysis and regional broadcaster teleSUR, both broadly supportive of Maduro’s administration, before reinstating them.

In 2019, as the U.S. moved to restrict travel to Cuba, Twitter suspended the accounts of numerous Cuban journalists and government officials. And both Facebook and Twitter have attached labels to content by certain public news agencies, like RT and Press TV, indicating their governmental affiliations, a policy from which Western state media like VOA, PBS, NPR, and BBC seem curiously exempt.

With their embargo against Trump, tech giants intervened more visibly than ever before in the political system of their own country, acting as a cartel to shape not only public debates, but also governmental processes.

Like Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom’s earlier efforts Leila Khaled and her supporters, their actions showed a new willingness to pursue their own collective interests with blunt force, even at the cost of unprecedented, direct confrontations with public institutions.

Critics of social media censorship took several distinct approaches to Trump’s sudden disappearance from cyberspace. Some noted that as private companies, online services are not bound by the United States’ First Amendment or other legal protections of free speech, although as their critics were quick to observe, in an age when nearly all means of communication are controlled by corporate giants, such distinctions offer little comfort.

Others worried that the ban might encourage similar measures against figures and organizations with politics quite different from Trump’s, something that has already happened, but could escalate.

But the significance of corporations, accountable only to their shareholders, acting in concert to effectively control political discussions and outcomes has drawn considerably less attention, despite its obvious importance not only for the quality of contemporary dialogue, but the viability of democracy itself.