Episode description

One could be forgiven for thinking reality, these days, is stranger than fiction. 

Fears of civil war in the United States if Donald Trump doesn’t get his way in the presidential election; a major armed conflict in Europe for the first time since the 1940s; and talk that the Russians were actually thinking of launching a nuclear missile into space to destroy all of the world’s satellites. All of it sounds like it was lifted off the pages of a Hollywood script. 

One can therefore forgive veteran Washington Post journalist David Ignatius for turning to fiction to try and help us understand our current reality. Having covered international affairs and the CIA for decades, Ignatius has written a new novel called Phantom Orbit. The book is a work of imagination that aims to educate readers about a very real possibility: warfare in outer space. 

Ignatius also shares his views on how the Biden Administration is handling the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. 

The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths.

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Executive Producer: Ricki Gurwitz

Senior Producer: Daniel Kitts

Editor: Kieran Lynch