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Fareed Zakaria on an Age of Revolutions

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Are we living in an age of revolutions? In his previous books, CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria foresaw the growth of illiberal democracy and “the rise of the rest”—two trends that define geopolitics today. In his latest book, Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, Zakaria looks to history to make sense of the industrial, digital, and identity revolutions turning politics on its head. Amid so much rapid change, what can societies do to prevent a backlash? 

Zakaria joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging discussion about his new book and current affairs. 

The left-right political spectrum has been upended, says CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria. Now, politics is governed by an opened-versus-closed divide.

Fareed Zakaria, the author of Age of Revolutions, looks back at the Industrial Revolution to explain how rapid economic and technological shifts scramble politics.

Fareed Zakaria explains that the “fundamental dilemma of liberalism” is that the freedom to choose one’s own path to happiness can leave people feeling anxious and lonely. It’s a void, he warns, that leaves people open to demagoguery and populism.

Rising geopolitical powers are often skeptical about Western assumptions about liberalism and the international rules-based order, Zakaria points out. But finding an alternative is difficult because “the West invented modernity.”

Zakaria says one of the greatest tensions in U.S. foreign policy is the double standard the United States applies to many multilateral institutions: “You can’t be the prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner of the entire process yourself if you believe in a rules-based system.”

Fareed Zakaria

Author, Age of Revolutions

Fareed Zakaria is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN’s flagship weekly foreign affairs show. He is a columnist for the Washington Post and a bestselling author. His latest book is Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present.

Ravi Agrawal

Editor in chief, Foreign Policy

Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.

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