Shifting geopolitical fault lines and global food security

• Date: 05 June
• Time 15:00 - 17:30
• Location: International Institute of Social Studies

On 5 June 2025, the International Institute of Social Studies will host this international workshop bringing together representatives from academia and societal organizations to discuss what food security entails in the current geopolitical turbulence.

The current global turbulence, with growing tensions between, and within, geopolitical alliances, tariff wars and (hybrid) conflicts, has put security high on the agenda. Yet what these new geopolitical vault lines mean for food security, has remained understudied.

The 2022 Black Sea blockade, which halted most of Ukraine’s grain export and triggered record spikes in food prices, temporary generated much attention for worldwide food security. Yet a more global and fundamental analysis of what food security entails in the current geopolitical turbulence, is still in its infancy, certainly in policy circles.

This international workshop will attempt to bridge with this gap by asking:

• With international agencies such as the World Food Programme, FAO and WTO being undermined by geopolitical tensions, and Western developmental NGOs facing serious budget cuts, which actors are likely to remain or emerge as positive forces striving towards global food security?
• To what extent can the EU step up its role in food security (e.g. in addressing food speculation)?
• Which actors in the Global South might drive new global food security efforts, and in what way?
• To what extent might the intensifying geopolitics fault lines beyond the clear negative effects on the current, Washington-consensus based international structure also open opportunities (as well as new risks) for food security initiatives by novel actors?

Speakers

• Merle Schulken,Opens external PhD student in economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Myriam Vander Stichele,Opens external Researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and co-author of a recent European Parliament report on commodity traders.Opens external
• Irna Hofman,Opens external Research Associate, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, author of manifold articles on Chinese, Russian and Western investment in agrifood in Central Asia.Opens external

The event is organized and moderated by Dr Oane Visser, Associate Professor in Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies.

This workshop is organized and sponsored by the Political Ecology research group.

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