David Ignatius On The Latest From The Iranian War And The Consequences For The Middle East

David Ignatius is the internationally admired foreign affairs columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post. He is also a popular novelist, writing 12 successful books about the world he covers as a reporter and columnist. His latest, Phantom Orbit, is about space warfare, in which a Russian scientist—educated in part in China—reconnects with an American woman he met in China who is now a CIA analyst. Ignatius’s strength as a columnist and novelist is his extraordinary knowledge of and access to primary players in espionage and statecraft around the world—men and women who are on the front lines of the global struggle for power among nations to survive and dominate in peace and war. To understand their complicated maneuvers for power, he travels the globe from his Washington base to learn firsthand about the power plays of the stories he writes about. David Ignatius graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and studied at King’s College, Cambridge. In a varied and distinguished career, he has worked as an editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and was Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Ignatius not only writes novels and a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post, but is also a commentator for MS-NOW, appearing frequently on Morning Joe. It is a critical moment in the Iranian war of 2026 and the future of the Middle East. We will talk about many subjects, including the decision of both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu to invade Iran, the factors that will determine its impact on Iran and the Middle East, the possibility of boots on the ground, the economic consequences for oil prices, and future actions by President Trump.