Fareed Zakaria On The Current Geopolitical Climate

Newsweek columnist and CNN TV anchor Fareed Zakaria was in New Haven on Monday. He spoke with Yale University president Richard Levin about the current geopolitical climate.   

The conversation began with a look at Iraq. Fareed Zakaria supported the initial Iraq invasion in 2003 and says he still believes ousting Saddam Hussein was positive. But he also says it's difficult now to make the case that the benefits outweighed the costs. 

"…in terms of the lives of Americans, the lives of Iraqis, the way in which it shattered Iraq. If anyone had to do it over again and they would still say that they would invade Iraq, I would suggest that either they are not being honest, or that they are not true empiricists."

When asked about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Zakaria says he'd have supported a counter-terrorism strategy, but that President Obama faced intense pressure from U.S. military leaders to increase troop levels. So Zakaria believes Obama made a sensible choice. 

"What he said to them is 'OK. There was a range of options. You’re going to get the low end of your range, not the high end. And secondly, I give you 18 months. Stabilize the country as much as you can, but in 18 months, we’re going to draw down to this smaller profile.'"

Zakaria says he believes Al Qaeda is not as powerful a threat as the West once thought it was. He sees President Obama’s broader foreign policy vision as moving away from strategies of the past toward foreign policy that's better aligned with the current global realities. 

"...and to spend more time and energy on what is happening in China, what is happening in India, engaging more with Brazil, and I think he is doing it about as sensibly as is possible given political constraints"

Fareed Zakaria was a guest speaker at the opening of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale.

For WNPR, I’m Diane Orson.