Grad Student Named 'Foreign Affairs' Editor

A Kennedy School of Government student was named managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine this week.

The magazine's editor James F. Hoge announced Monday that Fareed R. Zakaria, a 28-year old government doctoral candidate, will join the magazine in January.

Zakaria, who has been studying the changing role of American foreign policy at the Kennedy School, said yesterday he will leave for New York at the end of this semester.

Zakaria said he has always hoped to educate the American people about international affairs. In addition, he said he plans to "spice up" the foreign policy journal, produced by the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Foreign Affairs has tended to see nonpartisan to mean bipartisan. That's not very interesting," Zakaria said. "I'd like to make it spunky while intellectual. I don't want to make it into Spy magazine, but I'd like to have articles that people either love or hate."

Zakaria said he thinks he was tapped for the editorial position because of his youth and his fresh outlook.

"A lot of people who are a little older grew up in a cold war mentality," he said. "Their entire intellectual lives were shaped by the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union."

The younger generation, Zakaria said, are better equipped to deal with new issues in foreign policy.

Zakaria characterized the post Cold War environment as one of rapid change and many small conflicts.

"There will be a hundred little problems," Zakaria said. "We need to refocus, be flexible. People won't just be good and bad but will lie in between."

Zakaria, who majored in History at Yale, emphasized historical analysis as important in analyzing foreign policy.

"In order to fight Saddam Hussein, you need to make him out to be Hitler," Zakaria said.

Zakaria, who was born in Bombay, India, said his background played a significant role in his choice of career.

"My father was a politician and my mother a journalist so our dinner table conversations centered on international politics...Henry Kissinger's foreign policy...the Indo-China War," Zakaria said.

Although well acquainted with politics of the Third World, Zakaria said his primary influence was his education.

"My views have been shaped by my intellectual background, but obviously I have a certain sensitivity to issues between the advanced and the Third Worlds," Zakaria said.