The article questions neo-Malthusian theories that attempt to explain conflict and food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the consequence of environmental stress factors like water scarcity, drought and climate change. Instead it argues that socio-political factors are key in understanding conflicts in the region. The environment is a quintessentially human category and susceptible to adaptation, not an external variable that mechanically triggers socio-political consequences. Particular emphasis is laid on the cases of Syria and Darfur. The article then shows how the natural endowments of the MENA shaped food security before the advent of oil and globalised food trade. It concludes with an attempt to find a balanced explanation of the role of environmental factors in MENA food security today.

Water and food security issues appear to be of particular concern for Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries where natural resources are under climate and population stress. The paper intends to analyse water and food security issues in the SEMCs and their domestic and regional implications. The waterfood nexus explains how water consumption is strictly linked to the production, consumption and trading system of agro-food products. The trade liberalisation process imposed by the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) has fostered a specialisation in highly water-intensive agricultural products, such as fruit and vegetables. The dependence on imports for basic foodstuffs related to this production pattern make SEMCs particularly vulnerable to price fluctuation on international markets, and this situation had particular political repercussions during the global food crisis of 2008 and 2011, somehow contributing to the outburst of the Arab Spring. Water and food security are here explored in a geopolitical dimension. Demographic pressure and climatic hazards, in recent years, have strongly undermined water and food security in the region, creating the conditions for ever-stronger competition for water and land. The paper intends to present some competition scenarios relating to both large international water basins and fossil water aquifers shared by various countries; and it also discusses another important driver of change in SEMCs: the explosion of land deals (land grabbing). Facing global challenges – climatic change, demographic growth, human pressure over natural resources, global food crisis, competition over land and water – it is vital for SEMCs to improve water and food security, developing a new ‘green revolution’ able to restore the capacity of land and water in order to regenerate their service over time, and creating the conditions for a long-term resilient agriculture.