Though international policy analysts — past and present — have lavished attention on arms races, oil wars, blood diamonds, and other such sources of insecurity, few have spilled ink on an issue that now threatens global stability: the rising cost of grain. No surprise. Arms races have been the subject of Star Wars and James Bond movies, and conflict over diamonds carried the story in “Blood Diamond,” with the dashing Leonardo DiCaprio and the luscious Jennifer Connelly. Writing about rice and wheat is just not as sexy. But average food prices have risen 45 percent in the past nine months. [...]
Africa
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing yesterday on the ongoing crisis in Darfur, where solutions seem hard to come by, measures already in place seem ineffective, and the conditions on the ground remain horrifying. I tend not to give this conflict the attention it deserves, mainly out of discouragement. Kudos to Joe Biden for keeping it in the spotlight. There’s a lot of suffering being inflicted, and the only hope of ever resolving the multiple conflicts that are causing it is if we don’t forget that.
Last week the U.S. Navy amphibious ship Fort McHenry quietly slipped into the harbor at U.S. Naval Station Rota, Spain, near the Strait of Gibraltar, ending a six-month deployment to the West African coast. The 16,000-ton vessel’s mission, though largely unheralded, signaled a sea change in the Navy’s strategy. During its October-to-April cruise, Fort McHenry visited 19 ports in 10 countries, from Liberia to Senegal, supporting scientists, aid workers and military trainers from the U.S. and allied militaries — and delivering half a million meals to starving families. The Pentagon calls the vessel’s mix of training, diplomacy, science and humanitarian [...]