As the U.S. and NATO beef up against China and Russia, food is a weapon and collateral damage is widespread.

(Originally published June 30 in “What in the World“) Experts warn it could take several years to recover from the current food shortages facing the world. While Russia’s war on Ukraine is the leading culprit for disrupting exports of wheat and sunflower oil, poor weather and shortages of fertilizer—a byproduct of sanctions on Russia, a major exporter—are also to blame. Shortages of those two commodities have driven up prices for everything from palm oil and sugar to oats and meat. Prices for rice last month rose for a fifth straight month to a one-year high, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Who knew that, when U.S. President Joe Biden pulled U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, he’d simply be redeploying them within a year to a milder clime? The summit in Madrid of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 30 members kicked off with Biden announcing the biggest expansion of its military presence in Europe since the Cold War. The U.S. will send destroyers to Spain, anti-missile batteries to Italy and fighter jets to Britain. It will also establish a permanent troop presence in Poland.

NATO’s ranks will be swelling, too: Turkey lifted its veto of Finland and Sweden’s applications just in time for the meeting. The two aspiring NATO members only had to promise Ankara not to aid Kurdish organizations that Turkey labels terrorist, and thereby place them with metaphorical force under the revolving axles of large, oncoming public conveyances. The U.S. Defense Dept. coincidentally announced it now supports selling upgraded F-16 fighters to Ankara.

While adding Finland and Sweden’s forces to the alliance and, more importantly, eliminating any doubt about their support in wartime, the media continues to erroneously interpret the addition of Finland’s 830-mile border with Russia as a benefit of that country’s addition to NATO’s defense. On the contrary, the long and featureless Arctic border clearly expands the difficulty of detecting and repelling any incursion across it, and multiplies the risk of accidental air or land incursions that could trigger war. Long borders are advantageous to potential invaders, not their defenders.

There’s thus very little doubt how Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to interpret NATO’s intentions in adding Finland. Putin said for the time being Russia would respond symmetrically to any NATO deployments in Finland or Sweden to offset the threat to Russia they create.

The Madrid summit is also being attended by the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea, as the Atlantic alliance’s focus spills the shores of its eponymous ocean to tackle what it called the “strategic challenge” posed by China. Faced with a revolt from within his own party, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has joined the chorus in Washington warning that China may use Ukraine as a teachable moment for invading Taiwan, and so Taiwan must be given more defensive weapons urgently.

All the U.S. needs now is to beef up its deployment of forces to Asia.