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