FT.com / World – Instability fear forces strategic threat rethink
During the past few weeks senior officials have quietly begun to shift their emphasis of the fuel and food crisis from viewing it as purely a humanitarian and social problem to a concern that governments could fall as hungry and fuel-deprived people take their anger to the streets.
Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, has warned that riots in more than 30 countries were “stark reminders that food insecurity threatens not only the hungry but peace and stability itself”. She added that only seven meals separated civilisation from potential anarchy and that some of the world’s “gold-standard, new, fledgling democracies” were under the most pressure.