Who Is Fareed Zakaria?



We are rather of a divided Geminian mind regarding Fareed Zakaria. He is, at once, the author of accurate books about the present situation of the West's decline -- and the East's rise -- though brilliantly written, never known to contain any thesis transcending conventional academic wisdom. And, on the other hand, Zakaria always strikes us as somewhat cold-blooded and Kissingerian, slumming as a scribbler and pundit en route to an appointment as a deputy Secretary of State, where the real action is at. The salmon-colored weekly sums him up thusly:

"Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World is one of those peculiar volumes public thinkers of a certain disposition, upon reaching a certain popular standing, seem compelled to write: an omnibus summation of the recent trajectory of their thinking—and, by extension, the state of the world.

"... On paper (and through cable and copper wire and over the airwaves), there’s a lot to dislike. Not long ago an obscure academic and Foreign Affairs editor, Fareed Zakaria has since become something like a multimedia simulacrum of an intellectual. Here he is, with his angular aristocrat’s mug, delivering conventional wisdom like hard truths on ABC’s This Week. Here he is, at once deadpanning or hamming it up with his fawning 'buddy' Bill Maher. Since 2000, he’s edited the international edition of Newsweek, a publication whose unshakable middlebrow irrelevance is often publicly lamented by Jon Meacham, editor of the U.S. edition. Before migrating this year to a similar (and presumably better paid) weekly gig on CNN, Mr. Zakaria’s ubiquity extended to the nonprofit sector; the name of PBS’s Foreign Exchange With Fareed Zakaria is the kind of pun an eager investment banking trainee thinks his bosses make. He once reviewed wine for Slate."

More here.