David E. Sanger (born July 5, 1960) is an American journalist who is the chief Washington correspondent for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. A 1982 graduate of
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, Sanger has been writing for the ''Times'' for 30 years covering foreign policy, globalization,
nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...
, and the presidency.
He has been a member of three teams that won the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, and has been awarded numerous honors for national security and foreign policy coverage. He is the author of three books: ''
Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power''; ''The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power'', which was a best-seller; and ''
The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age''.
Early life and education
Sanger is the son of Joan S. and Kenneth E. Sanger.
His paternal grandfather was
Elliott Sanger, a co-founder of
WQXR-FM, the radio station of ''The New York Times''; and his paternal grandmother was Eleanor Naumburg Sanger (grandniece of banker
Elkan Naumburg
Elkan Naumburg (1835–1924) was a New York City merchant, banker, philanthropist and musicologist, best remembered for his sponsorship of the arts in Manhattan. From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, he used his wealth to promote p ...
), who served as program director of WQXR.
He has one sister, Ellin Gail Sanger Agress.
He graduated from
White Plains Senior High School
White Plains Senior High School is a high school in the White Plains Public Schools system of White Plains, New York, United States. It was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a School of Excellence in 1986–1987. The school's code o ...
in 1978. There, he was editor of ''The Orange'', the student newspaper. He graduated
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
in government from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
.
In 1987, he married Sherill Ann Leonard, a law clerk, in a non-denominational ceremony in the
Memorial Church of Harvard University
The Memorial Church of Harvard University is a building on the campus of Harvard University. It is an inter-denominational Protestant church.
History Predecessors
The first distinct building for worship at Harvard University was Holden Chapel, b ...
.
Career
![David E](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/David_E._Sanger_2011_05.jpg)
David E. Sanger is chief
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
correspondent for ''The New York Times'' and one of the newspaper's senior writers. In a 38-year career at the paper, he has reported from New York, Tokyo, and Washington, specializing in foreign policy, national security, and the politics of globalization. Soon after joining the ''Times'' in 1982, Sanger began specializing in the confluence of economic and foreign policy. Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, he wrote extensively about how issues of national wealth and competitiveness came to redefine the relationships between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and its major allies. He was correspondent and then bureau chief in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
for six years, traveling widely in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
. He wrote some of the first pieces describing
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
’s a nuclear weapons program, the rise and fall of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
as one of the world’s economic powerhouses, and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
’s emerging role.
Returning to Washington in 1994, he took up the position of Chief Washington Economic Correspondent, and covered a series of global economic upheavals, from Mexico to the
Asian economic crisis
The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis
A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, ma ...
. He was named a senior writer in March 1999, and White House correspondent later that year. He was named Chief Washington Correspondent in October 2006. In 1986 Sanger played a major role in the team that investigated the causes of the
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster. The team revealed the design flaws and bureaucratic troubles that contributed to the disaster and won the 1987
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for national reporting. A decade later he was a member of another Pulitzer-winning team that wrote about the
Clinton administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
's struggles to control exports to China.
Sanger was awarded, in 2004, the Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting for his coverage of the Iraq and Korea crises. He also won the Aldo Beckman prize for coverage of the presidency. In both 2003 and 2007, he was awarded the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for coverage of national security strategy. He also shared the
American Society of Newspaper Editors' top award for deadline writing in 2004, for team coverage of the Columbia disaster. In 2007, ''The New York Times'' received the DuPont Award from the
Columbia Journalism School for ''Nuclear Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?'', a documentary featuring him and colleague
William J. Broad
William J. Broad (born March 7, 1951) is an American science journalist, author and a Senior Writer at ''The New York Times''.
Education
Broad earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1977.[A.Q. Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan, (; ur, ; 1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021), known as A. Q. Khan, was a Pakistani Nuclear physics, nuclear physicist and metallurgist, metallurgical engineer. He was a key figure in Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction ...]
nuclear proliferation network. Their revelations in the ''Times'' about the network became a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
. In 2011, Sanger was part of another team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for International Reporting for their coverage of the
Japanese tsunami and
nuclear disaster. In 2012, Sanger broke the story that President Obama early in his presidency had secretly commissioned the
Stuxnet cyberattacks on Iranian nuclear facilities;
[John Powers]
'Zero Days' Documentary Exposes A Looming Threat Of The Digital Age
''Fresh Air'', NPR, July 18, 2016. his reporting was depicted in the
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
''
Zero Days
''Zero Days'' is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
Synopsis
''Zero Days'' covers the phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet com ...
'' (2016).
[
In a March 201]
interview
Sanger questioned Donald J. Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, who was running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
, about his views on foreign policy. Sanger pressed Trump on the idea that his worldview was one of 'America First', a term first used in association with Trump in a piece in USA Today by the former U.S. diploma
Armand Cucciniello
Trump "agreed with a suggestion that his ideas might be summed up as 'America First'." His campaign quickly adopted the slogan as the cornerstone of Trump's foreign policy. The phrase was used throughout the Trump administration.
Sanger is also an adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
, where he is the first National Security and Press fellow at the school’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, also known as the Belfer Center, is a research center located within the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, in the United States. From 2017 until his death in Oc ...
.
Sanger is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
and the Aspen Strategy Group
The Aspen Strategy Group (ASG) is a policy program of the Aspen Institute, based in Washington D.C. The ASG is a membership-based forum composed of current and former policymakers, academics, journalists, and business leaders whose aim is to e ...
.
Books
Sanger has written two books on US foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
. His first book is ''The New York Times'' best-seller ''The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power'' (2009), based on his seven years as the ''Times'' White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
correspondent, covering two wars, the confrontations with Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
and other states that are described in Western media as "rogue" states, and America’s efforts to deal with the rise of China.
Sanger's second book ''Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power'' (2012) is an account of how Obama has dealt with those challenges, relying on innovative weapons (such as UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s and cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
, such as Operation Olympic Games) and reconfigured tools of American power.
In 2016 General James Cartwright, then the retired Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
, pleaded guilty to making false statements in connection with the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, some of which appeared in one of the two books by David Sanger.
Sanger's 2018 book is '' The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age''.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Inside the White House: What Happened to the Bush Plan to Change the World?
October 25, 2007
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanger, David E.
1960 births
Living people
Harvard College alumni
The New York Times writers
American newspaper reporters and correspondents
Jewish American writers
Naumburg family
21st-century American Jews