By Fareed Zakaria
Al-Qaeda understands that if the Arab world democratizes, it loses the core of its ideological appeal – which is why Al Qaeda's head, Ayman al-Zawahiri wrote a book condemning the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's decision to support and participate in Egypt's democratic process.
So while we might despair over a particular statement or policy from the new Arab regimes, they have produced elected leaders with real legitimacy – and these leaders denounce Al Qaeda and violence and they do try in their own way to reconcile Islam and democracy.
Should we oppose them?
Watch the video for Fareed's full take on the debate over whether to support political Islam or secular dictators. Fareed Zakaria GPS airs on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
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By Fareed Zakaria
President Obama has surged in the polls in recent weeks, and Republicans have been quick to identify the problem: Mitt Romney. The columnist Peggy Noonan eloquently voiced what many conservatives believe when she said that Romney’s campaign had been a rolling calamity.
And yet shouldn’t it puzzle us that Romney’s campaign is so “incompetent,” as Noonan calls it, given his deserved reputation for, well, competence? After all, he founded one of this country’s leading financial firms, turned around the failing Salt Lake City Olympics, and was a very successful governor. How did he get so clumsy so fast?
In fact, the problem is not Romney, but the new Republican Party.
Watch the video for Fareed's full take on the problems facing Mitt Romney. Fareed Zakaria GPS airs on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
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Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
By Fareed Zakaria
The images of the American embassy burning in Benghazi might have conjured up memories of Tehran in 1979 but the analogy is false.
In Libya, the government is not fomenting Anti-Americanism, it is fighting it, openly declaring America an ally and friend. The country is pro-American by a 2-to-1 margin, and the violence there appears to have been the work of small, extremist elements that lack much popular support. But the storm has spread from Libya.
Across the Middle East, there have been protests railing against the United States and the West in general. Even in these places, however, keep in mind that these crowds number in the hundreds - perhaps thousands - in countries with tens of millions of people. They make for vivid images, but they do not tell the whole story. FULL POST
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It used to be that the Democratic Party was the glum party. In the 1970s and 1980s, Democratic party leaders often criticized the country relentlessly for its behavior at home and abroad, for its inequities and injustices. Think of civil rights and Vietnam. The Democrats, Jeane Kirkpatrick said at the 1984 Republican convention, always blame America first.
But today it is the Republican Party that often seems angry with America. Read the best-selling books by conservatives these days, watch Fox News or attend a Tea Party rally. They are filled with rage, often combined with a powerful nostalgia for an America that has gone away.
Watch the video for Fareed's take on how the winning party is usually the most optimistic one in U.S. elections.
Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
There is much speculation these days about power struggles in China in the wake of the ouster of Bo Xilai, the powerful party boss of Chongqing.
China's political system will surely be tested but in the short run, its leaders may have dodged a bullet.
Bo Xilai was a charismatic, Machiavellian leader, who used populism, money, and power to build a political base.
Had he not been brought down – by a series of mistakes, revelations, and bad luck for him – he might well have altered the nature of the technocratic system that now runs China.
In the short run, China might well survive its political crisis. But it faces a more immediate challenge: an economic crisis.
Watch the video above for more about China's economic future or read more in my column at the Washington Post.
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Everyone is worried that Greece might default on its national debt. That's really not news. By one estimate, in the 180 years since it gained its independence from the Ottomans in 1832, the country has been in default or restructuring for half this period. The news is that this time, Germany is willing to bail Greece out.
Throughout the euro-zone crisis, it has been conventional wisdom to regard the Germans as narrow-minded, ungenerous and dogmatically wedded to prescriptions of austerity to treat Europe's problems. These criticisms are vastly overstated.
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Editor's Note: Be sure to catch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on CNN every Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Everyone is looking at Europe these days as economic and political protests mount across the continent.
The downward spiral has produced a great debate about the virtues of "austerity," the idea that governments with large budget deficits must reduce these deficits -– mainly by cutting spending. If they don't get their budgets in order, so the idea goes, they won't be able to borrow money and will face a fiscal nightmare of ever-rising interest rates. FULL POST
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Whatever you thought of President Obama's recent speech on Afghanistan, it is now increasingly clear that the United States is winding down its massive military commitments to the two wars of the last decade.
We are out of Iraq and we will soon be largely out of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is dead, and al Qaeda is a shadow of its former self. Threats remain but these are being handled using special forces and intelligence. So, finally, after a decade, we seem to be right-sizing the threat from terrorist groups.
Or are we? FULL POST
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Editor's Note: Be sure to catch Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN every Sunday at 10am and 1pm ET.
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
At the start of this year, I predicted, rather hopefully, that the U.S. economy would recover nicely in 2012. I'm returning to that topic with some preliminary good news. If you look around the industrialized world, the U.S. economy is the most promising of the bunch.
The American recovery is not as vigorous as one might hope, but it is remarkably broad-based. Manufacturing is up - including, for the first time in thirty years, non-technology based manufacturing. Retail sales are up; consumer confidence and spending are growing. The new employment numbers are encouraging. American businesses continue to do astonishingly well. Corporate profitability continues to grow and the stock market reflects this.
The one area that continues to lag is housing, and it's a huge area. Traditionally, housing leads every recovery. This time it hasn't because the bursting of the housing bubble and the problems associated with mortgages and housing debt have left it struggling. But at some point that will end. FULL POST
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Editor's Note: Be sure to catch Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN every Sunday at 10am and 1pm ET.
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
We’re going to hear a lot of polarized rhetoric over the next few months. The Republicans and Democrats will seem to disagree about everything. But there is one huge and important area where there is a possibility - a possibility - of bipartisan action and that’s tax reform.
Most Americans - Republicans and Democrats - dislike the tax code. They’re right to do so. America has what is arguably the world’s most complex tax code. The federal code plus IRS rulings is now 70,000 pages long. The code itself is 16,000 pages. The statist French, for example, have a tax code of only 1,909 pages - only 12% as long as ours. And then there are countries like Russia, the Czech Republic, Estonia that have innovated and moved to a flat tax, with considerable success.
You have to understand, complexity equals corruption.
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Editor's Note: Be sure to tune in to GPS this Sunday at 10am and 1pm ET. Also, don't miss my special episode of GPS, "Global Lessons – The GPS Road Map for Saving Heath Care", which airs Sunday night at 8pm and 11pm ET/PT. The special will run again Saturday, March 24th, at 8pm and 11pm ET/PT.
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
When I was in college, in the early 1980s, I invited Ronald Reagan’s defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, to give a speech on campus. At the time, U.S. colleges were hotbeds of opposition to the Reagan administration, especially to its defense policies. Sure enough, as Weinberger began to speak, a series of students stood up and began to heckle. One after another, they rose and chanted a single line, “Deterrence is a lie!”
I am reminded of that turbulent meeting as I listen to the debates over Iran’s nuclear ambitions because it highlights a strange role reversal in today’s foreign policy discourse. It used to be the left that refused to accept the idea of deterrence - searching instead for options such as a nuclear freeze. And it used to be those on the right who would patiently explain the practical virtues of deterrence.
The conservative thinker Charles Krauthammer wrote in the New Republic in 1984. "Deterrence, like old age, is intolerable, until one considers the alternative." FULL POST
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
President Obama has been trying to cool down the war fever that suddenly gripped Washington early this month. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit and the flurry of statements surrounding it have created a dangerous dynamic. It is easy to see how things move toward war with Iran. It is difficult to see how they don't.
The pressure is building on Iran, but there are no serious discussions of negotiated solutions. Israel has already discounted the proposed new talks. Republican candidates will denounce any deal, no matter how comprehensive the inspections.
So either Iran suddenly and completely surrenders - or Israel will strike. And Bibi Netanyahu knows that the window presented by the U.S. political season is closing. If he were to strike between now and November, he would be assured of unqualified support from Washington. After November, the American response becomes less predictable no matter who is elected president. The clock is ticking.
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