Abstract

This article underlines that food security is a relevant dimension of contemporary international instability and aims to clarify the role it has played in the strategic discourse of the United States, given the country is the main food donor in the world besides being significantly involved in international crises. To this aim, the article carries out a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the 18 National Security Strategies published between 1987 and 2021. The research compares the way the different US Administrations have theorized food security and their respective elements of continuity and discontinuity. The research results show that food security is a steadily relevant issue in US strategic discourse, although the reasons for this strategic relevance change significantly with the political color of the Administration.