An award-winning journalist praised President Donald Trump for his criticism of the United Nations (UN) and shift in Ukraine foreign policy, yet criticized Trump’s failure to negotiate with Russian leaders at a Sept. 24 event in Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall.
David Ignatius, who has reported on foreign affairs and politics for almost four decades, writes a semi-weekly foreign affairs column for the Washington Post and is widely respected as an expert in international relations and diplomacy, having won awards in diplomatic reporting and commentary. Joel Hellman, dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, moderated the event as the annual Tanous Family Endowed Lecture, which celebrates the anniversary of Lauinger Library.
Ignatius said his column is guided by an understanding that the international order has shifted amidst a global turn towards right-wing populism.
“We had a rules-based order. This idea we have a fundamental rule of law — that order is under attack, and I find that just deeply worrying,” Ignatius said at the event. “In all my columns, I’m sort of grappling with the same question leaders around the world are: ‘How do we live in this world?’”
Ignatius said Trump’s Sept. 23 speech at the United Nations General Assembly, where Trump criticized foreign leaders and immigration policies, showed an important shift in Trump’s stance on Ukraine.
“Donald Trump has changed, in a significant way, his position on Ukraine and Russia,” Ignatius said. “Really, for the first time, he was saying Ukraine should fight and retake all of its territory. Before, he was saying Ukraine would have to give up four provinces and Crimea as a price for negotiations and peace. He is not saying that now; he is saying ‘fight and win.’”
Before this week, Trump had not expressed full confidence in Ukraine’s ability to win the territory it had lost. Instead, he had promoted land exchange as a bargaining chip to settle the war with Vladimir Putin.
Ignatius said that while Trump had some valid criticism of the UN, his tone and delivery at the meeting were embarrassing for the United States.
“There were some criticisms I actually agreed with,” Ignatius said. “He said the UN is useless, really soft on crises and doesn’t stop wars. There are a lot of criticisms that I have made and would endorse about the UN’s failure, really, of carrying out the role it was conditioned when it was created after World War II, but the tone in which he did it — this sort of rambling, self-promoting style — embarrassed me.”
Hellman said Ignatius’s experience in foreign affairs as a journalist has given him deep insight into the international process.
“What sets David apart is his remarkable access to the intelligence community,” Hellman said at the event. “Over the years, he’s cultivated relationships with CIA operatives, foreign diplomats and policy makers that have given him unprecedented insights into how American foreign policy actually works.”
Ignatius also drew on his experience interviewing world leaders and covering foreign affairs for international publications to assess the United States’ current relations with other nations.
Last month, Trump hosted Putin at a summit in Alaska, Putin’s first time on American soil since 2015, in an effort to end the Ukraine War. However, no resolution came out of the meeting.
Ignatius said he blamed both leaders for the failure: Putin for being too focused on winning the war and Trump for believing Putin could be persuaded into settling.
“People like me have been writing for a couple years, ‘Putin is not interested in a negotiated settlement; he wants victory,’” Ignatius said. “This is his destiny, this war, and anybody who thinks he will settle without being absolutely forced to, I think, completely misreads it.”
Oleksandra Nikanova (CAS ’28), an international student from Ukraine who attended the event, said she was surprised by Ignatius’ insight into Ukraine.
“I wasn’t expecting him to focus so much on Ukraine,” Nikanova told The Hoya. “I would agree with almost everything he said about my home country, and I thought that he was very knowledgeable and very expressive.”
Reflecting on his coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, Ignatius said Israel’s military objectives in Gaza stood in contrast to the political goals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In every military sense, this war should be over,” Ignatius said. “The Israeli military told me more than a year ago, ‘We have achieved our military objectives. Hamas will never be able to threaten Israel the way it did on October 7. We have destroyed their military power.’ Netanyahu has a different conception of victory: total victory. Still not sure exactly what he thinks that means, but it has led to the reinvasion of Gaza and tremendous loss of life for the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza City on Sept. 17, which the country expects to take “several months” to complete. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel — where the militant group killed over 1,200 people and captured around 250 hostages — about 200,000 Gazans have been killed or injured.
Ignatius said Trump has shown an honest commitment to ending the war through diplomatic outreach, even as Israel continues with its offensive.
“This war should end,” Ignatius said. “Trump knows that, says that and has tried negotiating directly with Hamas.”
Ignatius said he fears the war will broaden beyond Gaza, which he said neither Gazans nor Israelis want.
“My biggest worry now, frankly, is that the war will move into a new phase in the West Bank,” Ignatius said. “I think that is a lot closer than people realize. I have so many Israeli friends, especially in military and security services, and I know how passionately they want this to be over, but unfortunately, their voices don’t break through.”
Daria Grishina (SFS ’28), who is studying international politics, said Ignatius’ expertise helped her understand the current state of global affairs.
“It gave really good insight into how the global order is changing in today’s world and future expectations we can see, especially with his comments on current conflicts like Ukraine and Gaza,” Grishina told The Hoya.
Ignatius, who has extensively covered the foreign policy objectives of world leaders, said the rise of Trump’s “America-first” foreign policy approach stems from Americans’ growing skepticism of elites.
“One reason we have a country that does not trust the elites is that the elites kept making these big, consequential mistakes,” Ignatius said. “Part of what Trump represents is a rational reaction to mistakes that were made by elites who thought they knew what they were doing but didn’t turn out to.”
Ignatius said his long career as a journalist leads him to believe that a new world order, developing under Trump and an unstable global landscape, will include the United States and democratic norms.
“My great failing as a journalist, I’ve often thought, is that I am too much of an optimist,” Ignatius said. “People often say about journalists, ‘Smell the flowers; they’re going to look for the funeral.’ I want to believe we are going to find a way order that’s not going to be a Chinese version, but that’s going to be a world version that the United States will help in that recreation.”