A rising role for ‘Bread’ in International Relations

March 2, 2016, 8:39 pm 

People queue at a bakery in Caracas on February 25, 2016. They have to wait hours to get some subsidised milk, cooking oil, milk or flour — with some bakeries rationing their bread production and others selling no bread at all.(AFP Photo)

In Venezuela, bread is literally the prime concern in the economic life of the people. There are long queues for bread currently at bakeries which are desperately short of wheat since the country is heavily oil dependent and does not produce the commodity which is the ‘Daily Bread’ of the majority of people in the West. Venezuela is one country where the present drop in world oil prices is taking an unbearably heavy toll. If the present decline in oil prices continues, there is no doubt that the majority of oil producing countries would be crippled by unprecedented material hardships. That is, 'Bread' would prove a major issue.

Needless to say, it is mainly the ordinary people of the OPEC countries who would be badly affected by this oil price drop. Some of the ruling elites of these states, such as those of Saudi Arabia, apparently, know on which side their ‘Bread is buttered’ because they are in league with the West in its current military involvement in Syria. However, for the majority of people in these oil producing countries the pursuit of ‘Bread’ could very well turn out to be a matter of life and death, as is the case for the Venezuelan people, as the oil price crisis begins to kick-in. In Eastern and Southern Africa, children in their hundreds, are dying of malnourishment.

From the viewpoint of the IS and other terror organizations, currently stalking the Middle East and parts of Africa, the timing of their destructive operations could not have been better. For, to the extent to which states opposed to them divert resources from ‘Bread’ to ‘Guns’, to the same degree would popular disaffection with the governments concerned mount. Thus is the task of making the ordinary people hostile towards the governments collaborating to crush these terror groups, rendered very much easier.

The rising refugee influx from the Middle East to some major European states further compounds these problems confronting the major actors in the current bloody, West-led face-off with terror. Finding the ‘Bread’ in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements of these extra mouths at a time of international economic hardship could multiply the budgetary constraints of refugee-receiving countries in particular.

However, the struggle to secure ‘Bread’ could very well turn out to be universal in scope in view of the current downturn in the world economy. The situation is sufficiently grave to compel the G20 countries to comment, subsequent to a recent summit, that the global economic recovery ‘remains uneven and falls short of our ambition for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.’ The group singled out as risks facing the world economy, the following factors: volatile capital flows, falling commodity prices and rising geopolitical tensions.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, attending the G20 meet, had this to say: ‘We need to redouble our efforts to boost global demand rather than relying on the United States as the consumer of first and last resort.’

Lew could have said the same of China as well. A slowdown in the Chinese economy currently is quite rightly seen as having adverse consequences for the majority of countries, but the Chinese economy too should not be considered as having the sole key to global economic recovery. It is a rise in consumer demand and spending worldwide which could play a lead role in reviving the economic fortunes of the world and governments would do well to think deep on how their economies could be revived through a generation and galvanizing of local consumer demand, rather than be disproportionately concerned about international economic developments, although the latter invariably affect the well being of individual economies. In other words, governments need to be primarily concerned about how ‘Bread’ could be stocked in their larders and evenly distributed among their people.

Accordingly, national economies need to be energized and through such a process, local consumer demand and spending increased and intensified, if the economies in question and the global economy as a whole are to fare better. The greater the purchasing power individually and nationally, the greater would be the need for international trade and commerce.

Therefore, multiplying and intensifying the purchasing power of people through the strengthening of national economies is a leading pathway to stepped-up global growth. Over dependence on this or that major economy for sustained global growth may not prove advisable in view of world economic uncertainties originating in market-led growth. An overlooking of these considerations by governments could very well lead to a worsening of the world economic situation, culminating in recession.

Given the above backdrop, Sri Lanka has done right by entering into a Partnership Dialogue with the US. Sri Lanka cannot afford to miss any opportunities to strengthen cooperative links with the US in particularly the economic field and this facet in US-Sri Lanka ties should be welcomed. It should not be forgotten that the US is a major market for Lankan goods and it stands to reason that Sri Lanka should keep its relations with the US in very good shape.

It is a pragmatic economic policy that would best serve the developing world's interests. The foreign policy of these countries should be oriented on these lines on account of the fact that there are no major political blocs in the world today, as was the case in the Cold War years. We live in a multipolar world political order in which strong ideological considerations no longer carry any decisive weight. However, a country's national interest is of supreme importance to it and the economic well being of a country constitutes an important component of its national interest. But it does not follow that a country should compromise its sovereignty in the pursuit of its national interest.

Therefore, currently, providing 'Bread' sufficiently and equitably, is a supreme duty cast on governments. 'Guns' cannot be bought by states at the cost of 'Bread'. If there isn't sufficient 'Bread' to feed citizens, the world would very soon be having on its hands another financial crisis on the lines of the one that befell it a few years ago.

States also need to think beyond growth to development. It is the latter achievement which endures, while the former is very much dependent on favorable economic forces of a transitory nature. Growth combines with equity in development and this is the best means to 'Bread' that stays.=