Top International Editor to Speak at Breakfast

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria to be at 3rd Annual Event

Fareed Zakaria, one of the world’s leading journalists and commentators on international affairs, will speak at Westmont’s third annual President’s Breakfast, Feb. 25, at 7 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort. The title of his talk is “The Rise of China and India: The World’s Biggest Story.” Tickets are $75 and can be purchased by calling (805) 565-6895. The event is expected to sell out quickly.

Esquire named Zakaria “one of the 21 most important people of the 21st century,” describing him as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” He has been editor of Newsweek International since 2001, a political analyst for ABC News, a regular member of the roundtable on This Week with George Stephanopoulos and host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS. In November, he joined CNN as the host of a new weekly international news program. He is the author of New York Times bestseller “The Future of Freedom” and has a new book forthcoming in May 2008. “The Future of Freedom” is a global analysis of how democracy has changed every aspect of our lives, from economics and technology to politics and social relations.

Gerd Jordano, chair of the President’s Breakfast steering committee, says she became interested in Zakaria as a speaker following last year’s event with Thomas Friedman, author of international bestseller “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.”

“We were driving back to the airport and I asked Tom whom he would recommend for the next year,” Jordano says. “And he immediately answered that Fareed Zakaria would make a wonderful speaker.”

The subject of Zakaria’s columns range from terrorism to national security and America’s role in the world to the global economy and the rise of China and India. His award-winning cover stories include “Why America Scares the World,” “How to Win the Peace,” and “Why they Hate Us,” which the Boston Globe said “ought to be mandatory reading in every home in America.”

The Westmont Foundation and area businesses sponsor the President’s Breakfast to promote discussion and consideration of current issues among local community leaders. Prior to Friedman, the Foundation welcomed American historian and bestselling author David McCullough, who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

Born in India, Zakaria received a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a doctorate in political science from Harvard. At 28, he became the youngest managing editor in the history of Foreign Affairs, the leading journal of international politics and economics. He is co-editor of “The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World” and author of “From Wealth to Power,” a provocative examination of America’s role on the world stage.

Zakaria has written a new book, expected to hit bookstores in May. “The Post-American World” is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of many other countries. The publisher, W. W. Norton, says “The Post-American World” describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures.

• CNN, February 3, 2008: Fareed Zakaria on, CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: Guests discuss whether Super Tuesday will be decisive and Democratic vice presidential options.
• NPR, January 15, 2008: Fareed Zakaria on, Why Has Bush Changes Mideast Rhetoric, Goals?
• Daily Show, January 14, 2008: Fareed Zakaria, The Newsweek International editor chimes in on the current state of affairs in South Asia and Bush's Mideast peace talks.