Review of Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v13i2.811

Keywords:

Food goverance, global governance

Abstract

Matias Margulis's Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security (2023) challenges the assumption that UN organizations are peripheral to WTO trade rulemaking. Drawing on rich empirical cases, Margulis shows how the FAO, WFP, OHCHR, and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food have each intervened in multilateral trade negotiations, by mobilizing states, through public shaming, by invoking alternative legal frameworks, and by taking sides, aiming to shape better food security outcomes for the world's most vulnerable. This review highlights the book's theoretical contribution and its value for food studies, IR, and global governance scholars, and for teaching the evolution of global food governance.

Author Biography

Lucy Hinton, King's University College at Western University

Lucy Hinton is an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at King’s University College at Western University. Her research draws on critical international political economy and development theory to examine corporate and neocolonial influence in global food governance, with a particular focus on CARICOM states. Lucy approaches this work as a white settler scholar based in Canada, mindful of power relations embedded in researching postcolonial food systems. Her scholarship is oriented toward reparative approaches to power in global food governance, and she works closely with community partners and research participants to ground this commitment in practice.

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Published

2026-08-27

How to Cite

Hinton, L. (2026). Review of Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security. Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 13(2), 153–155. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v13i2.811

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2026): Finding Allies

Section

Book/Art/Event Reviews

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Lucy Hinton

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