Zane Swanson

Deputy Director, Global Food and Water Security Program
Jon B. Alterman

Zane Swanson is deputy director of the Global Food and Water Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he investigates the causes and consequences of food and water insecurity in the United States and globally. He is particularly interested in the development and application of evidence-based policy to address the overlapping challenges to food and water security, ecological security, and global development. Trained as an evolutionary anthropologist, Zane’s early research focused on the socio-ecological relationships between human physiology, health, the environment, and lifestyle among agropastoral and semi-nomadic communities living in rural Kenya. Working at the intersection of human biology and global health, his work informed investigations of early childhood growth variation and household cardiometabolic health difference in the context of food and water insecurity, as well as socioeconomic and market access disparities. Prior to joining CSIS, Zane worked in the Pontzer Lab at Duke University, where he also supported research investigating variation in human energy expenditure, physical activity, and life history. Zane holds a BA with Honors in anthropology from Boston University and received his PhD in evolutionary anthropology from Duke University. He hails from Sherman, Connecticut.

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Executive Education

Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends

Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends is Washington’s premier executive course for mid-to senior-level professionals responsible for helping their organizations identify and prepare for the global macrotrends that will drive change for the next 30 years.

Course Date: October 20, 2025
Registration Closes: October 13, 2025

The Nature of Strength

As agriculture faces growing biological and environmental threats, crop biodiversity is vital to maintaining and building resilience. CSIS experts examine how agrobiodiversity, and the genebanks that safeguard it, are strategic assets ensuring a more secure future.

Digital Report by Zane Swanson and Caitlin Welsh — June 11, 2025

How Is Bird Flu Impacting Agriculture and Food Security in the United States?

The H5N1 subtype of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, has caused unprecedented damage to poultry and dairy farms in the United States. CSIS experts explore the impacts to U.S. agriculture and food security, and what should be done to address them.

Critical Questions by Caitlin Welsh and Zane Swanson — April 17, 2025

Audio Briefs

How Is Bird Flu Impacting Agriculture and Food Security in the United States?

An audio version of “How Is Bird Flu Impacting Agriculture and Food Security in the United States?,” a new Critical Questions by CSIS's Caitlin Welsh and Zane Swanson. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs.

Podcast Episode by Caitlin Welsh and Zane Swanson — April 17, 2025

Audio Briefs

Seeding Security: Why Agrobiodiversity Loss Threatens National Security

Agriculture is increasingly strained by growing food demand, global conflict, and the loss of its most foundational resource, agrobiodiversity. CSIS experts examine why the loss of agrobiodiversity threatens not just food security, but global security writ large.

Critical Questions by Zane Swanson and Caitlin Welsh — January 21, 2025

Audio Briefs

Conflict, Hunger, and Famine in Sudan

An audio version of “Conflict, Hunger, and Famine in Sudan,” a new Critical Questions by CSIS’s Zane Swanson, Anita Kirschenbaum, and Caitlin Welsh. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Zane Swanson, Anita Kirschenbaum, and Caitlin Welsh — September 16, 2024

Audio Briefs

Conflict, Hunger, and Famine in Sudan

Less than two years after the outbreak of civil war, famine conditions are confirmed in Sudan. With ceasefire talks faltering and a near-complete lack of humanitarian access, conditions continue to deteriorate for 26 million Sudanese facing acute food insecurity.

Critical Questions by Zane Swanson, Anita Kirschenbaum, and Caitlin Welsh — September 11, 2024