Fareed Zakaria

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (Template:IPAc-en; born January 20, 1964) is an Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly paid column for The Washington Post.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and an editor at large of Time.<ref name="zcom">Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

Zakaria was born in Mumbai, India, to a Konkani family.<ref name="Voice">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His father, Rafiq Zakaria (1920–2005), was a politician associated with the Indian National Congress and a scholar interested in Islam.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His mother, Fatima Zakaria (1936–2021), his father's second wife, was for a time the editor of the Sunday Times of India. She died during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Zakaria attended the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1986,<ref name="zcom"/> where he was president of the Yale Political Union, editor in chief of the Yale Political Monthly, a member of the Scroll and Key society, and a member of the Party of the Right.<ref name="keohane_medal" /> He later gained a PhD in government from Harvard University in 1993,<ref name="zcom" /> where he studied under Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann, as well as international relations theorist Robert Keohane.<ref name=keohane_medal>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

After directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became the managing editor of Foreign Affairs in 1992, at the age of 28. Under his guidance, the magazine was redesigned to be published once every two months, moving away from a quarterly schedule. He served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he taught a seminar on international relations. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International,<ref name="zcom" /> and became a weekly columnist for Newsweek. In August 2010, he moved to Time to serve as editor at-large and columnist.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He writes a weekly column for The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for the Atlantic Media group, which includes The Atlantic Monthly.

He has published on a variety of subjects for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New Republic. For a brief period, he was a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate, with the pseudonym of George Saintsbury, after the English writer.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (Princeton, 1998), The Future of Freedom (Norton, 2003), The Post-American World (2008), and In Defense of a Liberal Education (Norton, 2015). He co-edited The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books) with James F. Hoge Jr. His last three books have been New York Times bestsellers and The Future of Freedom and The Post American World have both been translated into more than 25 languages. In 2011 an updated and expanded edition of The Post-American World ("Release 2.0") was published.

Zakaria was a news analyst with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos (2002–2007) where he was a member of the Sunday morning roundtable. He hosted the weekly TV news show, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS (2005–08). His weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square), premiered on CNN in June 2008.<ref name="zcom" /> It airs twice weekly in the United States and four times weekly on CNN International, reaching over 200 million homes. It celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 5, 2018, as announced on the weekly foreign affairs show on CNN.

In 2013, he became one of the producers for the HBO series Vice, for which he serves as a consultant.

Zakaria, a member of the Berggruen Institute, additionally features as an interlocutor for the annual Berggruen Prize.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Political views

Zakaria self-identifies as a "centrist",<ref name=voice>Template:Cite news</ref> though he has been described variously as a political liberal,<ref name=forbes>In Depth: The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media. Forbes. Published January 22, 2009.</ref> a conservative,<ref name=world>Template:Cite magazine</ref> a moderate,<ref name=state>Fareed Zakaria as US secretary of state? The Economic Times. Published November 6, 2008. Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> or a radical centrist.<ref>Olson, Robert (January–February 2005). "The Rise of 'Radical Middle' Politics Template:Webarchive". The Futurist, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 45–47. Publication of the World Future Society. Retrieved February 26, 2013.</ref> George Stephanopoulos said of him in 2003, "He's so well versed in politics, and he can't be pigeonholed. I can't be sure whenever I turn to him where he's going to be coming from or what he's going to say."<ref name=world /> In February 2008, Zakaria wrote that "Conservatism grew powerful in the 1970s and 1980s because it proposed solutions appropriate to the problems of the age", adding that "a new world requires new thinking".<ref>The End of Conservatism.</ref> He supported Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign and also for president. In January 2009, Forbes referred to Zakaria as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the American media.<ref name=forbes/> Zakaria has stated that he tries not to be devoted to any type of ideology, saying "I feel that's part of my job ... which is not to pick sides but to explain what I think is happening on the ground. I can't say, 'This is my team and I'm going to root for them no matter what they do.'"<ref name=voice/>

File:Christopher Murray, Jens Stoltenberg, Bill Gates, Gordon Brown, Olusegun Obasanjo, Fareed Zakaria, Giulio Tremonti - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2006.jpg

Fareed Zakaria at World Economic Forum 2006, Davos, Switzerland (second from the right)

Zakaria "may have more intellectual range and insights than any other public thinker in the West", wrote David Shribman in The Boston Globe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2003, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told New York Magazine that Zakaria "has a first-class mind and likes to say things that run against conventional wisdom."<ref name=world /> However, in 2011, the editors of The New Republic included him in a list of "over-rated thinkers" and commented, "There's something suspicious about a thinker always so perfectly in tune with the moment."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Zakaria's books include The Future of Freedom and The Post-American World. The Future of Freedom argues that what is defined as democracy in the Western world is actually "liberal democracy", a combination of constitutional liberalism and participatory politics. Zakaria points out that protection of liberty and the rule of law actually preceded popular elections by centuries in Western Europe, and that when countries only adopt elections without the protection of liberty, they create "illiberal democracy". The Post-American World, published just before the 2008 financial crisis, argued that the most important trend of modern times is the "rise of the rest", the economic emergence of China, India, Brazil, and other countries.<ref name="wapost">Template:Cite news</ref>

From 2006, Zakaria has also criticized what he views as "fear-based" American policies employed not only in combating terrorism, but also in enforcing immigration and drug smuggling laws, and has argued in favor of decriminalization of drugs and citizenship for presently illegal immigrants to the United States of all backgrounds.<ref>Intelligence 2 Ltd., America is to blame for Mexico's drug war, December 1, 2009, retrieved April 24, 2011</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Interview with Fareed Zakaria, Part 1, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 28, 2006: "We are not going to deport them (illegal immigrants)—no democracy would... Most of these [illegal immigrants], almost all of them, couldn't do anything...that would break the law. The minute they do that, they would be deported."</ref>

Referring to his views on Iran, Leon Wieseltier described Zakaria in 2010 as a "consummate spokesman for the shibboleths of the [Obama] White House and for the smooth new worldliness, the at-the-highest-levels impatience with democracy and human rights as central objectives of our foreign policy, that now characterize advanced liberal thinking about America's role in the world."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Zakaria endorsed Barack Obama on his CNN program.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2011 The New York Times reported that Obama has "sounded out prominent journalists like Fareed Zakaria ... and Thomas L. Friedman" concerning Middle East issues.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Plenary session of St Petersburg International Economic Forum (2016-06-17) 07.jpg

Fareed Zakaria and Vladimir Putin at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 17, 2016

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a Newsweek cover essay, "Template:Visible anchor",Template:Anchor Zakaria argued that Islamic extremism was not fundamentally rooted in Islam, nor could it be claimed a reaction to American foreign policy. He located the problem in the political-social-economic stagnation of Arab societies, which then bred an extreme, religious opposition. He portrayed Osama bin Laden as one in a long line of extremists who used religion to justify mass murder. Zakaria argued for an intergenerational effort to create more open and dynamic societies in Arab countries, and thereby helping Islam enter the modern world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also hosted a 2016 CNN special titled "Template:Visible anchor".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Additional citation needed

Zakaria initially supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<ref name=world/> He said at the time, "The place is so dysfunctional ... any stirring of the pot is good. America's involvement in the region is for the good."<ref name=world/> He argued for a United Nations–sanctioned operation with a much larger force—approximately 400,000 troops—than was actually employed by the administration of President George W. Bush. However, he soon became a critic. In addition to objecting to the war plan, he frequently criticized the way the Bush administration was running the occupation of Iraq.<ref name="newsweeksurge" /> He argued against the disbanding of the army and bureaucracy yet supported the de-Baathification programs.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He continued to argue that a functioning democracy in Iraq would be a powerful new model for Arab politics but suggested that an honest accounting would have to say that the costs of the invasion had been much higher than the benefits. He opposed the Iraq surge in March 2007, writing that it would work militarily but not politically, still leaving Iraq divided among its three communities. Instead, he advocated that Washington push hard for a political settlement between the Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, and Kurds, and begin a reduction in forces to only 60,000 troops.<ref name="newsweeksurge">Template:Cite web</ref> He later wrote that the surge "succeeded" militarily but that it did not produce a political compact and that Iraq remained divided along sectarian lines, undermining its unity, democracy, and legacy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Zakaria supported the April 2017 U.S. missile strike against a Syrian government–controlled airbase. Zakaria praised President Donald Trump's strike and said it was the moment "[he] became president of the United States."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In July 2020, Zakaria was one of the 153 signers of the "Harper's Letter" (also known as "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate") that expressed concern that "the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In March 2021, Zakaria criticized the size of the U.S. military budget, saying that "The United States’ F-35 fighter jet program, bedeviled by cost overruns and technical problems, will ultimately cost taxpayers $1.7 trillion. China will spend a comparable amount of money on its Belt and Road Initiative...Which is money better spent?".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In July 2022, Zakaria wrote a Washington Post article titled "Forget pronouns. Democrats need to become the party of building things", in which he said "There is plenty of evidence that the Democratic Party has moved left, that it is out of sync with Americans on many of these cultural issues, and that it needs to correct course" and that "This is not a perception problem. It is a reality problem. Democrats need to once more become the party that gets stuff done, builds things and makes government work for people. That's a lot more important to most Americans than using the right pronouns".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2025, Zakaria endorsed Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman for the 2028 Democratic Party presidential primaries.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Honors and awards

Zakaria won the National Magazine Award in 2010 for his columns and commentary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His show has won a Peabody Award<ref>71st Annual Peabody Awards, May 2012</ref> and been nominated for several Emmys. He was conferred India Abroad Person of the Year 2008 award on March 20, 2009, in New York.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Filmmaker Mira Nair, who won the award for year 2007, honored her successor. In January 2010, Zakaria was given the Padma Bhushan award by the Indian government for his contribution to the field of journalism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2019, Zakaria was listed as one of Foreign Policy's "Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, Zakaria was awarded the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Brown University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Miami, Oberlin College, Bates College, and the University of Oklahoma among others.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the 2000 Annual Orator of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He has served on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University's International House, City College of New York's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was a trustee of Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Controversies

Role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq

In his 2006 book State of Denial, journalist Bob Woodward of The Washington Post described a November 29, 2001, meeting of Middle East analysts, including Zakaria, that was convened at the request of the then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. According to a story in The New York Times on Woodward's book, the Wolfowitz meeting ultimately produced a report for President George W. Bush that supported the subsequent invasion of Iraq. Zakaria, however, later told The New York Times that he had briefly attended what he thought was "a brainstorming session".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was not told that a report would be prepared for the President, and in fact, the report did not have his name on it. The Times issued a correction.<ref>Quote: "An article in Business Day on Oct. 9 about journalists who attended a secret meeting in November 2001 called by Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense, referred incorrectly to the participation of Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and a Newsweek columnist. Mr. Zakaria was not told that the meeting would produce a report for the Bush administration, nor did his name appear on the report."</ref>

Debate on the Park51 Islamic Center

In 2010, in protest at the Anti-Defamation League's opposition to the building of the Park51 mosque and Islamic cultural center two blocks from the World Trade Center site, Zakaria returned the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize awarded to him by the ADL in 2005. He declared that the ADL's opposition to the mosque meant that he could not "in good conscience keep [the award] anymore". In support of his decision, he stated that the larger issue in the controversy is freedom of religion in the United States, even while acknowledging that he is not a religious person. He also wrote that a "moderate, mainstream version of Islam" is essential to winning the war on terror, and that moves like the ADL's make it harder for such a moderate version of Islam to emerge and thrive.<ref name="returnaward1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="returnaward2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="returnawardmedia1">Template:Cite news</ref> On August 8, 2010, edition of Fareed Zakaria GPS, Zakaria addressed the issue, stating that in returning his award, he had hoped that the ADL would reconsider their stance.<ref name="returnawardmedia2">Template:Cite news</ref>

Plagiarism allegations

File:Fareed Zakaria World Economic Forum 2013.jpg

Fareed Zakaria in 2013

Zakaria was suspended for a week in August 2012 while Time and CNN investigated an allegation of plagiarism<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> involving a August 20 column on gun control with similarities to a New Yorker article by Jill Lepore. In a statement Zakaria apologized, saying that he had made "a terrible mistake".<ref name=apolo>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Six days later, after a review of his research notes and years of prior commentary, Time and CNN reinstated Zakaria. Time described the incident as "isolated" and "unintentional"; and CNN "... found nothing that merited continuing the suspension ...".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name = WP81612 >Template:Cite news</ref>

The controversy was reignited in September 2014, when Esquire and The Week magazines reported on allegations made in pseudonymous blogs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="FareedStatement">Template:Cite news</ref> Newsweek added a blanket warning to its archive of articles penned by Zakaria, and after an investigation of his several hundred columns for the magazine, found improper citation in seven.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Similarly, after allegations surfaced on Twitter regarding the originality of one of Zakaria's columns for Slate, the online magazine appended a notice to the article indicating that, "This piece does not meet Slate's editorial standards, having failed to properly attribute quotations and information...".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Slate Editor-in-Chief Jacob Weisberg, who had, months before, exchanged barbs with one of the aforementioned anonymous bloggers on Twitter in defense of Zakaria,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> maintained his original position that what Zakaria did was not plagiarism.<ref name="firestorm">Template:Cite news</ref>

Corrections to selected Zakaria columns were also issued by The Washington Post, which had responded to the initial allegations by telling the Poynter media industry news site that it would investigate.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later on the same day, November 10, the Post said that it had found "problematic" sourcing in five Zakaria columns, "and will likely note the lack of attribution in archived editions of the articles."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, editors at The Washington Post and Newsweek denied that Zakaria's errors constituted plagiarism.<ref name="firestorm" />

Personal life

Zakaria is a naturalized citizen of the United States.<ref name="newsweek">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1997, Zakaria married Paula Throckmorton, a jewelry designer. The couple have three children. In July 2018, his wife filed for divorce.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He lives on the Upper West Side in New York City.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> While a graduate student, Zakaria pursued his love of cooking, a passion deepened by his interest in chefs like Jacques Pépin and Julia Child.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Zakaria is a self-described nonpracticing Muslim. He added: "My views on faith are complicated—somewhere between deism and agnosticism. I am completely secular in my outlook." His ex-wife is a Christian and his three children have not been raised as Muslims.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bibliography

• The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World Essays from 75 Years of Foreign Affairs, edited by James F. Hoge and Fareed Zakaria, (Basic Books; 1997) Template:ISBN
• From Wealth to Power: The Unusual origins of America's World Role, Fareed Zakaria, (Princeton University Press; 1998) Template:ISBN
• The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, Fareed Zakaria, (W.W. Norton & Company; 2003) Template:ISBN
• The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria, (W.W. Norton & Company; 2008) Template:ISBN
• The Post-American World, Release 2.0, Fareed Zakaria, (W.W. Norton & Company; 2011) Template:ISBN
• In Defense of a Liberal Education, Fareed Zakaria, (W.W. Norton & Company; 2015) Template:ISBN
• Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, Fareed Zakaria, (W.W. Norton & Company; 2020) Template:ISBN
• Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, Fareed Zakaria, (W. W. Norton & Company; 2024) Template:ISBN

See also

• Indians in the New York City metropolitan region
• List of Yale University people
• List of Harvard University people
• New Yorkers in journalism

External links

• FareedZakaria.com Official site
• Global Public Square (GPS) at CNN
• Column archive Template:Webarchive at The Daily Star
• Column archive (through 2010) Template:Webarchive at Newsweek
• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 1821472

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=1821472|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm1821472/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 1821472  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 1821472{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=1821472|plain=false}}

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

• Template:C-SPAN
• Template:Muckrack