The Global Food and Water Security (GFWS) project is an international, interdisciplinary endeavor to benefit all of humanity – particularly women and children, mothers and babies. It was launched in the fall of 2022 by Wolfgang Danspeckgruber and Michael Schoenleber ’12 at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) in Princeton and Liechtenstein. Food, fertilizer and water security are deeply interconnected issues and relate directly to geopolitics, especially in an era where nearly everything can be “weaponized.”  

The project is unique as it aims to scientifically identify, analyze and evaluate contamination and poisoning in waterways, agricultural land and products globally due to warfare – including long after the cessation of armed conflict. It assesses multidimensional and multigenerational consequences for human health and development from using armaments in both theory and praxis and attempts to develop appropriate measures to remedy the damages to land and water. It thus combines scientific and applied operations, training, education and information. The project considers contemporary combat contamination and historic experiences across many continents.

An initial seminar at LISD in Princeton in November 2022 led to the first Liechtenstein Colloquium on European and International Affairs (vLCM) in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, in January 2023, and several subsequent meetings in Austria in the winter of 2023-24. Research seminars on the environmental effects of warfare and the consequences for human health through contamination or destruction of air, water and land resources have taken place at LISD each semester since the start of the project. GFWS benefits from cooperation with the former executive director of the World Food Programme, Gov. David Beasley. Dr. Naomi Rintoul-Hynes (Canterbury Christ Church University) is the principal investigator of the GFWS project. It is chaired by Dr. Wolfgang Danspeckgruber.