ESS 61Q: Food and Security
General Education Requirements
Not currently certified for a requirement. Courses are typically considered for Ways certification a quarter in advance.
Course Description
In this course, we explore the interconnections between food security and international security. The academic and policy worlds of agricultural development and international security seldom cross, which is puzzling because for the one billion people who suffer from severe malnutrition, security is first and foremost about food. Furthermore, this real-world problem kills vastly more people each year than war and is inextricably related to the pathologies of weak and failing states. We argue that food security should be a key component of international security, and that its prominence will rise as climate-induced shortages increase international competition for energy and resources. The course will provide a broad overview of key policy issues concerning agricultural development and food security, as well as an overview of the field of international security, and we will examine how governments and international institutions are beginning to include food in discussions of security.
Meet the Instructor: Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Stedman
Rosamond Naylor
Rosamond (Roz) Naylor is the founding Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) and the Woods Institute, and Associate Professor of Economics, by courtesy. She explores the topics of food security, food policy, and resource and climate impacts on food systems through field-based research around the world. With her students, she has worked in countries as diverse as Indonesia, Cameroon, Kenya, Mexico, India, China, Chile, and Peru (among others). She also has an intense interest in U.S. food and agricultural policy and in local and national hunger issues. She currently co-chairs the international Blue Food Assessment and is the Chair of the Board of the Aspen Global Change Institute.
Stephen Stedman
Steve Stedman is a Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, and a Professor of Political Science, by courtesy. Steve’s early research was on negotiation and implementation of peace agreements in civil wars, but more recently he has been working on issues of election integrity worldwide. He has directed three major global commissions, including the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change; the Kofi Annan Commission on Democracy, Security and Elections; and most recently, the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age. From 2004 to 2005 he served as Assistant Secretary General and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General. Steve currently directs Stanford’s Honors Program in Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law. In 2018, he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award, Stanford’s highest honor for service to undergraduate education.
