David Ignatius

Washington, D.C.

Columnist covering foreign affairs Education: Harvard College; Kings College, Cambridge

 David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column. Ignatius has also written eight spy novels: “Bloodmoney” (2011), “The Increment” (2009), “Body of Lies ” (2007), “The Sun King” (1999), “A Firing Offense” (1997), “The Bank of Fear” (1994), “SIRO” (1991), and “Agents of Innocence” (1987). Body of Lies was made into a 2008 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.


Ignatius joined The Post in 1986 as editor of its Sunday Outlook section. In 1990 he became foreign editor, and in 1993, assistant managing editor for business news. He began writing his column in 1998 and continued even during a three-year stint as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Earlier in his career, Ignatius was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering at various times the steel industry, the Justice Department, the CIA, the Senate, the Middle East and the State Department.


Ignatius grew up in Washington, D.C., and studied political theory at Harvard College and economics at Kings College, Cambridge. He lives in Washington with his wife and has three daughters.

Honors & Awards:

2000 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary
2004 Edward Weintal Prize
2010 Urbino International Press Award
2013 Overseas Press Club Award for Foreign Affairs Commentary
Lifetime Achievement Award, International Committee for Foreign Journalists
Legion D'Honneur awarded by the French government
As The Post’s foreign editor, Ignatius supervised the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

Latest from David Ignatius

If Trump wants to invite Russia to the G-7, he needs to set some boundaries

There should be a verifiable commitment from Russia to quit its cyber-interference in the elections of current G-7 members.

Aug 22, 2019

Lindsey Graham wants to create a backstop for Afghanistan

The South Carolina senator will introduce legislation requiring that the secretaries of State and Defense certify that withdrawing troops won’t put the U.S. homeland at risk of a terrorist attack.