He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly paid column for The Washington Post.

[9] He later gained a PhD in government from Harvard University in 1993,[3] where he studied under Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann, as well as international relations theorist Robert Keohane.

Zakaria was a news analyst with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos (2002–2007) where he was a member of the Sunday morning roundtable.

His weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square), premiered on CNN in June 2008.

"[19] In February 2008, Zakaria wrote that "Conservatism grew powerful in the 1970s and 1980s because it proposed solutions appropriate to the problems of the age", adding that "a new world requires new thinking".

[18] Zakaria has stated that he tries not to be devoted to any type of ideology, saying "I feel that's part of my job ... which is not to pick sides but to explain what I think is happening on the ground.

'"[17] Zakaria "may have more intellectual range and insights than any other public thinker in the West," wrote David Shribman in The Boston Globe.

[23] In 2003, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told New York Magazine that Zakaria "has a first-class mind and likes to say things that run against conventional wisdom.

The Post-American World, published in 2008 before the financial crisis, argued that the most important trend of modern times is the "rise of the rest," the economic emergence of China, India, Brazil, and other countries.

[26][27][28] Referring to his views on Iran, Leon Wieseltier described Zakaria in 2010 as a "consummate spokesman for the shibboleths of the [Obama] White House and for the smooth new worldliness, the at-the-highest-levels impatience with democracy and human rights as central objectives of our foreign policy, that now characterize advanced liberal thinking about America's role in the world.

[30] In May 2011 The New York Times reported that Obama has "sounded out prominent journalists like Fareed Zakaria ... and Thomas L. Friedman" concerning Middle East issues.

Zakaria argued for an intergenerational effort to create more open and dynamic societies in Arab countries, and thereby helping Islam enter the modern world.

[34] He continued to argue that a functioning democracy in Iraq would be a powerful new model for Arab politics but suggested that an honest accounting would have to say that the costs of the invasion had been much higher than the benefits.

[33] He later wrote that the surge "succeeded" militarily but that it did not produce a political compact and that Iraq remained divided along sectarian lines, undermining its unity, democracy, and legacy.

[citation needed] In January 2010, Zakaria was given the Padma Bhushan award by the Indian government for his contribution to the field of journalism.

[44] He has served on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University's International House, City College of New York's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership,[45] among others.

[47] In his 2006 book State of Denial, journalist Bob Woodward of The Washington Post described a November 29, 2001, meeting of Middle East analysts, including Zakaria, that was convened at the request of the then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

According to a story in The New York Times on Woodward's book, the Wolfowitz meeting ultimately produced a report for President George W. Bush that supported the subsequent invasion of Iraq.

"[55][56][57] Six days later, after a review of his research notes and years of prior commentary, Time and CNN reinstated Zakaria.

[61][62][63] Newsweek added a blanket warning to its archive of articles penned by Zakaria, and after an investigation of his several hundred columns for the magazine, found improper citation in seven.

[68] Corrections to selected Zakaria columns were also issued by The Washington Post, which had responded to the initial allegations by telling the Poynter media industry news site that it would investigate.

[69] Later on the same day, November 10, the Post said that it had found "problematic" sourcing in five Zakaria columns, "and will likely note the lack of attribution in archived editions of the articles.

[73] As a graduate student, Zakaria fostered a love for cooking and credits chefs Jacques Pépin and Julia Child with his greater interest in food.