The imperialist roots of Tunisia’s food crisis

The recent outbreak of a severe food crisis in Tunisia has sparked a debate over its causes. By re-articulating the basic principles of the food security paradigm, most of the scholarship has pointed to Tunisia’s inability to address the disarticulation of global food supply chains and rise of food prices, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, at a time when domestic production of cereals declined due to waves of drought. From this perspective, Tunisia’s food crisis is seen either as a failure of domestic authorities to implement the ‘right’ policies or as an unlucky occurrence. This article challenges such explanations, arguing that the crisis must be understood by looking at the country’s subordinated position within the international order. To do so, it introduces the concept of imperialism and explores three main consequences of Tunisia’s peripheral position: the extroversion of its economy, the financial weakness of the state, and the pauperisation of the working masses. Moreover, when the food crisis broke out, these three factors significantly limited the capacity of Kais Saied’s government to respond effectively, worsening both the impact and duration of the crisis.