Kitchen as the New Venue of Foreign Policy
Publisher: Conflict Cuisine Project
Author(s): Johanna Mendelson-Forman
Date: 2016
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Renewable Resources
Conflict Cuisine examines the nexus of food and war. Included in this study is the practice of culinary diplomacy and gastrodiplomacy by governments and citizens of countries that have experienced war or conflict. In diplomatic terms, Conflict Cuisine and the use of food to persuade and educate is a form of soft power. There are two forms of Conflict Cuisine. The first is food in zones of conflict – a phenomenon that encompasses access to food, food security, and the impact fighting in the field has on existing food supply and provisioning of goods to markets. Food is often studied in the context of humanitarian aid and post-conflict development. At present, over 60 percent of all foreign assistance given by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) goes to humanitarian purposes and development in conflict or post-conflict countries. Yet even today we do not fully understand what levels or aspects of food insecurity are most likely to directly contribute to or cause conflict. It is an area where there is little interdisciplinary academic research – especially as it relates to political governance issues that are the basis for many conflicts. The second form of Conflict Cuisine is the food of diaspora populations that transfer their national foodways to new countries, an extension of their culture. Immigrants use their food culture as a means of creating a new life in their adopted country – both as a means of remembering their homeland and to earn a living. Immigrants also serve as culinary diplomats. Through their cooking they transfer elements of their own culinary culture to the diversity of our own foodways.