In 2022, Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Justin Gilpin wrote, “Breadbasket Diplomacy: Preserving Wheat as a Tool of American Statecraft,” where they argued that American investment in food production and export, namely wheat, should be a pillar of national security strategy. Three years later, we asked them to revisit their arguments.Image: Wikimedia CommonsIn your 2022 article, “Breadbasket Diplomacy: Preserving Wheat as a Tool of American Statecraft,” you argue that the United States should “incorporate grain in its national security policy and re-sow the seeds of wheat diplomacy.” Three years later, what role do you think wheat should play in America’s national security and foreign policy strategy? The importance of breadbasket diplomacy is even more central today. Adversaries of the United States are more active in using food as leverage, global food challenges continue, and global trade and tensions are heightened.To secure American wheat export market access and ensure a free global market in wheat more broadly, the United States needs to embrace wheat as a pillar of national security. In good news, there has been movement on that front. In July 2025, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, recognizing that “farm security is national security.”This is a productive start, but implementation is in its infant stages. We need to continue to push for a coherent strategy — one that treats wheat as a strategic asset and integrates that notion into trade, infrastructure, foreign assistance, and domestic agriculture policy.Russia, China, and now India, surpass the United States in wheat exports, production, and stockpiles. In 2025, how are these countries exploiting the U.S. decline in wheat and using food more broadly to expand their influence?Russia and China are creating institutions to displace Western wheat, shore up their partnership, insulate their economies, and create dependencies (notably by sub-Saharan and east African countries)
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In 2022, Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Justin Gilpin wrote, “Breadbasket Diplomacy: Preserving Wheat as a Tool of American Statecraft,” where they argued that American investment in food production and export, namely wheat, should be a pillar of national security strategy. Three years later, we asked them to revisit their arguments.Image: Wikimedia CommonsIn your 2022 article, “Breadbasket Diplomacy: Preserving Wheat as a Tool of American Statecraft,” you argue that the United States should “incorporate grain in its national security policy and re-sow the seeds of wheat diplomacy.” Three years later, what role do you think wheat should play in America’s national security and
