AMMAN, Jordan — Washington is getting enthusiastic about an ideological war these days: not between Democrats and Republicans — that’s old news — but rather between Americans and radical Islam. Many of those who spent the past several weeks insisting that we label jihadi terrorists “Islamic” now urge that we fight them on the ideological […]
Fareed Zakaria
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Fareed Zakaria: The limits of the ‘Islamic’ label
NEW YORK — President Obama stands accused of political correctness for his unwillingness to accuse groups such as the Islamic State of “Islamic extremism,” choosing a more generic term, “violent extremism.” His critics say you cannot fight an enemy that you will not name. Even his supporters feel that his approach is too “professorial.” But […]
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Fareed Zakaria: Pick the best means to win the battle
NEW YORK — The deal announced Thursday to end the fighting in Ukraine will face the same obstacle the previous such agreement has faced — how to ensure that Russia will abide by it. Frustrated by Russia’s continued support for Ukrainian separatists, Western statesmen have begun discussing military assistance for the Ukrainian government. But in […]
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Fareed Zakaria: American intervention is not the answer
NEW YORK — The Paris terror attacks were barbaric but also startling, leading many to ask what could be done to prevent this kind of terrorism in the future. One man has a clear answer. “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States,” Sen. John McCain told The New […]
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Fareed Zakaria: Blasphemy takes on a political agenda
NEW YORK — As they went on their rampage, the men who murdered 12 people in Paris this week yelled that they had “avenged the prophet.” They follow in the path of other terrorists who have bombed newspaper offices, stabbed a filmmaker, and killed writers and translators, all to mete out what they believe is […]
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Fareed Zakaria: America must explore more ways to be innovative
MUMBAI — The world is impressed with America these days. On recent trips to Europe and Asia, I kept hearing praise of the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship. But a set of new studies suggests the glittering examples of Facebook, Snapchat and Uber are deceptive. American innovation is in trouble. “Over the past 30 years, the […]
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Fareed Zakaria: Military intervention in Middle East will work only if …
SAN FRANCISCO — Here we go again. The United States has declared war on another terrorist group. President Obama’s speech Wednesday night outlined a tough, measured strategy to confront the Islamic State — which is a threat to the region and beyond. But let’s make sure in the execution of this strategy that we learn […]
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Fareed Zakaria: Arab political decay brought religious zealotry
WASHINGTON — Watching the gruesome execution videos, I felt some of the same emotions I did after 9/11. Barbarism is designed to provoke anger and it succeeded. But in September 2001, it also made me ask a question, “Why do they hate us?” I tried to answer it in an almost 7,000-word essay for Newsweek […]
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Fareed Zakaria: A second Sunni Awakening?
ISTANBUL — What are the strengths of the Islamic State? I posed this question to two deeply knowledgeable observers — a European diplomat and an American former official — and the picture they painted is worrying, though not hopeless. Defeating the group would require a large and sustained strategic effort from the Obama administration — […]
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Fareed Zakaria: The fantasy of Middle Eastern moderates
NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton was expressing what has become Washington’s new conventional wisdom when she implied, in her interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic, “moderates” might have prevented the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In fact, America has provided massive and sustained aid to the moderates in the region. […]