Dangerously Hungry: The Link Between Food Insecurity and Conflict

This report captures the tremendous growth in food-related instability literature. In the last five years, researchers have produced at least 60 peer-reviewed journal articles demonstrating how food insecurity itself drives conflict. As a result, more than half of all peer-reviewed literature published on this topic over the past 20 years has been published in the last five years alone. The growth in peer-reviewed literature on food-related instability has been made possible, in part, by improved tracking of conflict events around the world, the use of novel methodologies and datasets, and an increase in research on food-related instability in previously unstudied contexts. In this report, drivers and motivators are discussed in detail and a novel conceptual framework for food-related instability is introduced. Three emerging themes—urbanization, food assistance’s role in combatting food-related instability and the use of food as a weapon of war—are then discussed as areas for continued research.