It has long been known that malnutrition limits the development of societies. In a somewhat ominous and complex constellation of relationships, inadequate food and water increasingly are being recognized as causes, as well as results, of armed conflict. There is little ambiguity about the fact that the vast majority of peoples who are caught in civil war, chronic domestic tension, and international conflict—in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa—are quite simply hungry and thir…