Impact of Ukraine War on Global Energy and Food Supply Chains: A Case Study of South Asia

Abstract

The damaging economic, political, and diplomatic effects of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022 have not been confined to just continental Europe. The highly interconnected and interdependent nature of the global economy means that other regions are similarly, or even more negatively, affected by any outbreak of hostilities in states like Ukraine that prove integral parts of global food and energy supply chains. This is particularly the case with the South Asian region that has a predominance of developing economies already struggling to provide adequate basic services to their citizens, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and other climate change related natural disasters like floods and wildfire. The aim of this paper is to analyse the ongoing economic and geopolitical effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine in South Asia, highlighting how sustained disruptions in global food and energy supply chains exacerbate existing insecurity in developing economies. The corollary to this economic insecurity is increased inter-regional tensions as individual states compete against each other for increasingly scarce and costlier food and energy resources.