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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 ...
, 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 ...
, 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 Elliot Sanger (March 2, 1897 – July 9, 1989) was the co-founder of WQXR-FM and an early advocate of FM broadcasting. Biography Elliott Maxwell Sanger was born to a Jewish family in Manhattan on March 2, 1897. He graduated from Townsend Harris ...
, a co-founder of
WQXR-FM WQXR-FM (105.9 FM) is an American non-commercial classical radio station, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serving the North Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the nonprofit organization New York Public Radio, which also operates ...
, the radio station of ''The New York Times''; and his paternal grandmother was Eleanor Naumburg Sanger (grandniece of banker Elkan Naumburg), 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 ...
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 Sou ...
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 ...
. 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. 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 o ...
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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
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 37.46 ...
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 are ...
. 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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
’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 n ...
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 List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
’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 that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...
. 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 ...
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 ...
'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 The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) was a membership organization for editors, producers or directors in charge of journalistic organizations or departments, deans or faculty at university journalism schools, and leaders and faculty of ...
' 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 The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights, Manhattan, Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is ...
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 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 ...
. 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 A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, lar ...
. In 2012, Sanger broke the story that President Obama early in his presidency had secretly commissioned the
Stuxnet Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first uncovered in 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing subs ...
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 motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
'' Zero Days'' (2016). In a March 201
interview
Sanger questioned Donald J. Trump, 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 Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
, 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, publi ...
, 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 O ...
. Sanger is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...
and the Aspen Strategy Group.


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 ...
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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
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 ...
, such as
Operation Olympic Games Operation Olympic Games was a covert and still unacknowledged campaign of sabotage by means of cyber disruption, directed at Iranian nuclear facilities likely by the United States and Israel. As reported, it is one of the first known uses of o ...
) and reconfigured tools of American power. In 2016 General
James Cartwright James Edward "Hoss" Cartwright (born September 22, 1949) is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who last served as the eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from August 31, 2007, to August 3, 2011. He previously se ...
, 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