Éclipse puis résurgence de la souveraineté alimentaire. Une approche en termes d’économie politique

The notion of economic sovereignty has been in eclipse for a long time, due to its inseparable link to the globalisation of economies, which aimed to see States give way to the principle of fluidity in the movement of people, goods and capital. The retreat of sovereignty has sometimes even been associated with the goal of curtailing the interests of nations through trade, thereby signifying that globalisation is a way of organising societies. Food sovereignty has not escaped this fundamental process, whether through the reorganisation of international trade effected in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), then the WTO, from 1994 onwards, or through the reforms of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and, above all, the war in Ukraine, we are witnessing a resurgence of the notion of economic sovereignty, particularly in regard to food. This article looks at the economic and political conditions underpinning this return of sovereignty and how it should be interpreted.