American journalist Robin Wright shared a memo Wednesday that she has written for the future president of the United States.

In a speech on campus as part of the Distinguished Lecture series, Wright outlined five major challenges she believes he will face in regard to policy in the Middle East and South Asia.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iran, will all be challenges, according to Wright, who spoke as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.

“Iraq is likely to be the easiest of the challenges you will face — easy being relative. The second challenge will be the most pressing. The third challenge is … the most complex,” Wright said. “The fourth challenge is the oldest. Iran, the last of the challenges, will be the most daunting.”

Wright, a graduate of University of Michigan, has traveled to 140 countries on six continents. She most recently has worked on foreign policy for The Washington Post. She has written for many prominent newspapers, both in the United States and abroad.

Her most recent novel was released in March 2008, entitled “Dreams and Shadows, the Future of the Middle East.”

Wright said it was time someone went to the Middle East to take a closer look at the problems facing the people in these countries.

“I wrote this book in large part because I was deeply concerned that the United States did not understand what is happening inside the region,” Wright said. “We didn’t have any clue what was really going on, and as a result, we didn’t plan well for the aftermath of the war. We miscalculated time and time again.”

Wright added to her memo a sixth challenge for the future president. She said an anti-jihadist movement would help assist in the accomplishment of the other five challenges.

DLS Director Eric Schmidt thanked the Laurie Carlson Progressive Ideas Forum for their support in Wednesday’s talk and said he was grateful for the Forum’s help in bringing Wright to speak as part of the series.

“We are very proud and honored to have one of the United States’ most distinguished journalists with us tonight,” Schmidt said. “She has the unique insight and ability to take extraordinarily complex issues and have them make sense on an international level.”

UW senior Laura Taishoff, who attended the lecture, said she found Wright’s pessimism refreshing, but a little depressing.

“It’s just an interesting stance because she is sort of a pessimist, and I feel like especially with the elections coming up, you hear a lot of the politicians saying like ‘we’re going forward; we’ll get through this; we’ll find a solution,’ But it’s going to be a lot harder than that,” Taishoff said.

Wright claimed she was a different type of pessimist. Not finding the glass half empty, she told her audience she was the ultimate pessimist who asked if there is even any water in the glass at all.

“Mr. President, I don’t envy you. In fact, as I look out at the challenges you face, I don’t know why you’d want this job at all,” she said. “I wish you well and a lot of luck, because I think you’re going to need it.”