After World War 2, the United States enabled a global order that allowed everyone to use the high seas freely and trade. It was designed as a counterweight to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This global order had a price to pay for the United States as it needed to ensure free shipping on the world’s oceans and also involve itself in many of the world’s conflicts, most notably the Middle East.
When the Soviet bloc ceased to exist 30 years ago, this counterweight to a global opponent was not needed anymore. This is why every single US President since George H. W. Bush was more focused on domestic matters and more isolationist than his predecessor. This includes the current US administration.
For the world, this means that free and uncomplicated trade has increasingly become a thing of the past. The US reduced its massive global footprint and increasingly got out of some of the world’s affairs. Insecurity in the world’s shipping lanes increased.
Then COVID happened and showed the world that it could not depend on a single producing basin anymore. China as the world’s sweatshop had run its course and began to refocus on itself. And if that was not enough, the Ukraine war put much of the world’s food and fertilizer supply in jeopardy. Suddenly, hunger in parts of the world is a real prospect.
The cherry on top came with the explosion of the North Stream pipeline and also the attack of an Iranian drone on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea. No ship is safe anymore.
What does all this mean for a nation like Saudi Arabia?
The Kingdom is a net food importer. Its population has grown from 3 Million in 1950 to about 36 Million in 2022. This is far beyond the capability of Saudi Arabia to sustain itself with traditional means like 70 years ago. It will be hard to reach the goals of the ambiguous Vision 2030 without imports and based even on the methods developed by the Israeli dry country agriculture complex.
But food is just one side of the medal. Those who produce food also produce lots of biowaste. Let’s not forget energy. Those three sectors do not only complement each other, but they can also be better than the sum of their parts.
