War, Conflict, and Food Insecurity

Abstract

This article reviews the literature at the intersection of war, armed conflict, and food security, focusing on intergroup violent conflicts such as interstate conflict, civil war, insurgencies, state violence toward civilians, riots, and nonstate conflict. We briefly discuss recent trends in conflict and food security and note the channels through which conflict may impact food security in developing countries. Next, we review the quantitative literature, studying the pathways between conflict and food security and their effects on child health and household coping strategies, displacement, changes in factors of production, market and travel restrictions, and insurgent predation. The effect of food insecurity on conflict, related to limited access to land and shocks to commodity prices, is discussed. We briefly survey the effects of aid and assistance programs and then discuss the connection between climate change, conflict, and food security. The review concludes by identifying topics in this field that are ripe for future research.