Food Warfare

Food has become a central dimension of contemporary conflict, with major ecological and humanitarian consequences across the world. This book offers the first conceptual framework for understanding “food warfare”, exploring how food and hunger are deliberately manipulated to undermine enemies and gain advantage during wartime. Papale provides a detailed examination of the practices adopted by both state and non-state actors, including blockades, contamination and the destruction of supplies, shedding new light on their strategic rationale and far-reaching consequences. As he shows, food warfare is not a modern invention but has characterised military activities since ancient times. Bringing together case studies from Assyria’s military campaigns and the Spanish conquest of Mexico to current security crises, such as the war in Ukraine, the siege of Gaza and terrorist insurgencies, the book spans four continents and nearly thirty centuries of history. The emerging picture is that of a challenging form of violence whose impact, if left unaddressed, might grow even further in the years ahead.