HCRI Landmark Lecture 2025: The Return of Famines?

Hosted by Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester

Prof Alex de Waal will speak on ‘The Return of Famines? The end of liberal humanitarianism and the perils of mass starvation’

At a time when the liberal order is in sharp decline and the world’s largest aid provider is being dissolved, should we expect a return of great famines?

The near-conquest of famine was an under-acknowledged but signal achievement of the liberal world order. This lecture will examine the history of global famine over the last 150 years, showing data for trends and correlates, and how their key characteristics have changed over the decades.

In the last decade, progress towards eliminating mass starvation stalled and has reversed. The lecture will place this regression in historical context, and will examine what political illiberalism and wrenching changes to the global economy portend, along with the dramatic ending of the US as the world’s major humanitarian donor and norm setter.