Over the past decade, the Peruvian government has been making a very deliberate effort to popularize its cuisine worldwide. It's a strategy that a growing number of middle-income countries are adopting as they look to flex their muscles on the international stage. "Think – if you're Peru, Mexico or Korea, you are not going to be major nuclear proliferators," says Johanna Mendelson-Forman, a policy expert on international conflict. "But maybe you can hope to become the world's No. 1 culinary destination."

As the world gathers in Lima to discuss next year's climate deadline, a lot of focus is on the US-China climate agreement. While alone that deal has not paved a pathway for a meaningful global agreement all the way to Paris, if you detour through New Delhi something intriguing and hopeful emerges.

Food diplomacy initiatives are increasingly being recognized as a successful means to open up peace dialogue as a result of our increasingly cosmopolitan palettes. Food is one of the oldest forms of exchange, with yet untapped recognition to deliver social conflict transformation. With this in mind, International Alert's Conflict Kitchen London opens up a new avenue to pursue peace dialogue by taking people on a tantalizing journey exploring new culinary experiences.

The gastronomic fair is part of the Peruvian "food boom" that's put Lima on the map for epicurean excellence,according to The Wall Street Journal and others. The festival has grown from just 30,000 attendees back in its first year, 2008, to an estimated 600,000 this year. Indeed, food may be the country's greatest passion. 

With a swelling franchise of 44 international restaurants, Gastón Acurio has made the varied food of Peru its proudest export.  Then Gastón Acurio opened his first restaurant in 1994, and began remaking gritty Lima into the culinary capital of South America.