David Ignatius

David Ignatius (born 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American journalist and novelist, best known for his column in The Washington Post and for his spy fiction. His writing, both in reporting and in fiction, returns again and again to the Middle East, diplomacy and the workings of intelligence agencies.

The son of Paul Ignatius, a former Secretary of the Navy and president of The Washington Post, he studied at Harvard and began his career at The Wall Street Journal, where he covered the steel industry, the Justice Department and the CIA, and served as Middle East correspondent in the early 1980s. He joined The Washington Post in 1986, where he edited the Outlook section and foreign coverage, and since 1999 he has written a column on global politics. He also worked for the International Herald Tribune in Paris.

Alongside his reporting he has published suspense novels set in the world of espionage, beginning with Agents of Innocence in 1987. The best known, Body of Lies (2007), was filmed by Ridley Scott. Critics have accused him of being too deferential toward the CIA, while supporters praise his sources and his grasp of intelligence work. His legacy lies mainly at the meeting point of analytical journalism and spy fiction.