Fareed Zakaria

the practice of multiple countries cooperating on issues of mutual concern

Multilateralism is not naive idealism — it is the practical recognition that the most consequential problems exceed any single nation's capacity to resolve.

the process of making laws or rules less strict

Economic liberalization without accompanying institutional development tends to produce growth whose benefits concentrate rather than distribute.

adj. relating to politics (especially international relations); as influenced by geographical factors

Geopolitical competition between great powers creates pressures that smaller nations navigate through alignment, nonalignment, or strategic ambiguity.

a system of government where experts make decisions based on technical knowledge

Technocratic governance delivers efficiency gains that democratic processes cannot always match, while generating legitimacy deficits that efficiency cannot resolve.

a belief in or practice of interfering in a situation to bring about change

Military interventionism's record across three decades invites the modest conclusion that its costs have consistently exceeded its proponents' prior estimates.

a world or situation that comes after the influence of America is less dominant

The post-American world is not anti-American — it is simply one in which other powers have developed the capacity to pursue independent agency.

adj. going or reaching across the Atlantic Ocean; found on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean

Transatlantic solidarity, tested repeatedly by divergent interests, has proven more durable than pessimists predicted and more strained than optimists hoped.

n. the process of globalizing something; specif; the expansion of many businesses into markets throughout the world; marked by an increase in international investment

Globalization's discontents are real and politically consequential, but the alternative — managed national fragmentation — carries costs rarely factored into the critique.

n. a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner; adj. characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty

Authoritarian resilience has outlasted the post-Cold War confidence that economic development would inevitably produce democratic political evolution.

dominant or influential over others

Hegemonic stability theory suggests that a dominant power's relative decline produces systemic disorder rather than the orderly redistribution optimists anticipate.

adv. in a tactful manner

Diplomatically engaging adversaries is not appeasement — it is the recognition that coercion alone rarely produces durable behavioural change.

n. devotion to one's own nation; desire for one's nation to be successful or independent; patriotism

Nationalism's resurgence reflects genuine anxieties about sovereignty and identity that cosmopolitan elites have been too quick to dismiss as mere prejudice.

a situation in which multiple countries or groups have power and influence

Multipolarity creates a more complex diplomatic environment than unipolarity, requiring more sophisticated statecraft and greater tolerance for ambiguity.

n. Characteristic of or appropriate to an institution

Institutional erosion, once initiated, follows a logic of accelerating deterioration that makes reconstruction far more costly than preservation would have been.

n. serial arrangement in which things follow in a logical order; v. determine the order of constituents in

Sequencing matters enormously in democratic transitions — elections before institutional consolidation have repeatedly produced illiberal outcomes their architects did not intend.