David Ignatius, Author of Phantom Orbit

David Ignatius-specific Questions

Tell us about how you got started in journalism?

What was your first journalism job?

How did you transition into Foreign Affairs?

Do you remember your first story on the CIA?

Tell us about what inspired you to write your first novel?

What was your initial publishing process like?

David Ignatius, Phantom Orbit is your 12th book. What is your writing process?

What is your perspective on writing fiction vs non-fiction?

You’re known for your uncanny ability to predict the next great national security headline. In what ways does your reporting influence or guide the stories you tell? Can you give us some examples of when that has happened?

David Ignatius, how did you get the idea for Phantom Orbit? How much of Phantom Orbit is predictive vs current? 

Satellite weapons and the idea of a war in space are central ideas in the novel. I hadn’t thought much about our dependence on satellites or how essential GPS is to business, navigation, and communications – to modern life. I also hadn’t thought about how vulnerable they might be. Are the sorts of scenarios introduced in the book based on real-world national security issues?

The war in Ukraine plays a prominent role in the book. You’ve written about Ukraine as being the first space war. What do you mean by that?

Walk us through the timeline of writing this book, and how it lines up with current events? You quote Alexei Navalny (the Russian opposition leader and political prisoner) (209). Did you include this quote before or after his death earlier this year (2/16/24)? Is Dimitry intended to be a Navalny-type character?

Approach to Espionage

One of the interesting things about the book is the difference in approach between the Chinese and the Russian facilitation of partners. It feels like the Chinese approach was more seductive, offering money and understanding, and expensive gifts. The Russian approach was more threats, violence, and removing gifts.

David Ignatius, is this a fictional view, or are these accurate approaches?

The book notes that China overtakes the once dominant Russia in the space race. Presuming this to be true, is there any relation between these two approaches – the stick vs the carrot?

Edith Ryan

We first meet Edith Ryan in 1995 when she, like Volkov, is a graduate student in Beijing. She hasn’t yet joined the CIA as a case officer, but she’s in an agent role. She builds a relationship with Volkov and ends up feeling she has crossing a line between emotional and professional. Later in her career, she becomes a case officer.

Her character development was both fascinating and relatable. In many instances folks are struggling to write strong women, and often end up writing disagreeable women. Edith is also talented, vulnerable, eager to please, and tenacious. In short, relatable on many levels. Tell us about how you arrived at Edith Ryan.

David Ignatius, is she based on anyone in particular?

Tell us about how you developed the themes of sexual harassment and discrimination at the CIA, the establishment of a review committee, etc. As recently reported, the House Intelligence Committee found the CIA at fault in their investigation on sexual assaults at the agency. The bipartisan report found “little to no accountability or punishment for confirmed perpetrators.” You’ve said that the CIA is different now, that it takes these issues more seriously. In what ways has the CIA changed? [woman director, Gina Haspel (2018-2021)]

One of the aspects we love is Edith’s relationship with Robert Gallant. It’s a struggle that many women deal with. When encountering adversity we don’t understand, what to attribute to sexism, vs something else? How do you see this happening?

David Ignatius, you have a very long writing career. Have you changed the way you write women over the years?

The Places

A good book takes you to places you’ve never been before and you get to experience it. 

But also, when taking you to places you HAVE been before, it brings back levels and reflections. Two of the places Sarah spent a fair amount of time in: Russia & El Segundo (working at The Aerospace Corporation mentioned in the novel).

Sarah spent a fair amount of time in Russia during the late 90s and early 2000s (Moscow, St Petersburg, Tula & Kaluga). Talk to us about the time you spent there and how you developed the broader Russian national character that appears in the book. It felt very on point in many ways.

David Ignatius, you mentioned a good deal about the great Russian authors, and when Volkov started reading them as an adult. Can you talk  to us about how the Russian people interact with these authors, and the Russia of the past vs the present?

In the Acknowledgements, you note the “tragic collapse of free and humane society in Russia.” You also say that “Between the lines, there is a love letter to the Russia that once was and might be again.”

Talk to us about the time you’ve spent in China, & similarly how you’ve characterized the Chinese characters there?

Volkov’s Loyalty to Russia

During the book Volkov beings reading some of the great Russian literature, from Gogol, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky – How is this intertwined with his conception of what Russia is?

Volkov’s decisions regarding Dimitry

Volkov basically raised his son to be an early martyr. Why did he do this in Russia? He himself was not pristine, and he excuses his action because he needed money. Why didn’t he get out when he had opportunities, and raise a family that COULD prosecute with integrity?

Movie Adaptations of Books

Body of Lies was turned into a movie in 2008 – David Ignatius, what was that like? How was it picked up? Did you play a role in the screenplay or as a consultant?

How did it feel to have Ridley Scott directing and Leonardo diCaprio playing the lead?

How did you feel about the end result?

Are there future plans in the works to bring your work to the big screen?

GENERAL NOTES

Vladimir Putin was inaugurated (May 7) for another six-year term as president.

Ivan Volkov is from a Russian town east of Moscow called Magnitogorsk (mag-neat-ah-gorsk). It’s an industrial town (like Pittsburgh) Stalin envisioned as the great steel capital of the Soviet Union. The town was ruined after the fall of the Soviet Union. Volkov grew up with the legacy of Soviet communism. His father had been a party official, and he’s living in a shattered world. He’s a brilliant young man. He’s good at math and science. He ends up in Moscow and then finally in Beijing. Volkov seems to represent positive qualities of Russia: intellectual creativity, scientific discipline, a yearning for something better than what they have. Talk about what the character of Volkov says about Russia in this moment.

Three smart people play key roles in this cerebral, well-researched thriller. In the 1990s, Russian Ivan Volkov studies aerospace engineering at Tsinghua (Sing-Wah) University in Beijing, where he learns from renowned professor Cao Lin and meets American grad student Edith Ryan.

Back home in Russia, Volkov is asked if he trusts his “new Chinese friends.” “I am a Russian,” he says. “I don’t trust anyone.” His money-loving wife leaves him and their young son. He struggles to make ends meet. “Don’t take Dimitry,” he begs her. “I don’t want Dimitry,” she tells him. “He reminds me of you.” But he loves his son. He also loves Russia, but he doesn’t love its corruption.

Three decades later, the specter of war looms in space, with hints of vulnerabilities in the GPS system. The U.S. has dominated space for so long that Cao Lin believes it’s complacent and can’t see its vulnerabilities. While much of our daily lives depends on GPS’s precision in commercial air and highway travel, it’s critical to Ukraine for pinpointing Russian targets on the battlefield. Thousands of miles up in space, one satellite might be able to reposition itself close to another country’s satellite and reprogram or disable it. China, Russia, and the U.S. fear and mistrust each other, and they can cause huge problems on earth by dominating space with “killer satellites.”