2026 Putting resilient food systems at the heart of geopolitical security

Dr. Máximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he had been Executive Director at the World Bank Group since November 2016 and, before the Bank, Dr. Torero led the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

Dr. Torero, a national of Peru, holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Pacific, Lima, Peru. He is a professor on leave at the University of the Pacific (Peru) and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany, and has also published in top journals (QJE, Econometric Theory, AER-Applied Microeconomics, RSTAT, Labor Economics and many other top journals).

In 2000, Dr. Torero has received the Georg Foster Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, won the Award for Outstanding Research on Development given by The Global Development Network, twice, in 2000 and in 2002 and received the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole in 2014.

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Twitter – @MaximoTorero
Website – www.maximotorero.com

Ottilia Anna Maunganidze is the Head of Special Projects in the Office of the Executive Director at the Institute for Security Studies. An international law and human rights advocate, she promotes human security in Africa by advancing peace and justice. Ottilia explores new areas of work for the ISS and informs institutional strategy. Her areas of interest include accountability, emerging security threats, international criminal justice, international human rights law, and migration trends and policy. Ottilia previously conducted research on the legal and socio-political situations in countries in the SADC region focusing primarily on the Indian Ocean Islands. Before joining the ISS in 2009, she worked as a junior legal advisor in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) and as a human rights education coordinator for the Eastern Cape chapter of Amnesty International.

Ottilia has a Master of Laws (LLM) in Fundamental Rights Litigation & International Human Rights Law, a PGC, a PDIS; and an LLB with Sociology.

Among other board and committee positions, she serves on the 2025-2026 WEF Global Future Council on the Future of Good Governance, having served on the Council during its 2023-2024 term.

Michael Werz is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His work focuses on the nexus of food security, climate change, migration, and emerging countries, especially Turkey, Mexico, and China. He is a member of the steering committee at the Center on Contemporary China and the World at Hong Kong University, a founding member of the WP Intelligence Council on Global Security, and the codirector of Nexus.

Founded in 1921, CFR is a nonpartisan, independent national membership organization, think tank, educator, and publisher, including of Foreign Affairs. It generates policy-relevant ideas and analysis, convenes experts and policymakers, and promotes informed public discussion—all to have impact on the most consequential issues facing the United States and the world.

Previously, Michael was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund working on transatlantic foreign policy and the European Union. He has held appointments as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, and as a John F. Kennedy memorial fellow at Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

Werz has published numerous articles and several books dealing with a wide range of scholarly and political topics, including race and ethnicity in the twentieth century, Western social and intellectual history, minorities in Europe and the United States, and ethnic conflict, European politics, and anti-Americanism. He is a graduate of the Institute of Philosophy at Goethe University in Frankfurt, a former professor at Hannover University in Germany, and a former and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for German and European Studies.