He graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, with a Bachelor in Philosophy and Comparative Literature, and got his Master of Arts from the Faculty of Political Science in 1980.
He is best known for his book about the first Croatian president Tuđman and the biography of General Ante Gotovina. He became a journalist in the Vjesnik consortium, where he worked as an editor and columnist in the daily Vjesnik and the weekly Danas. In 1988, Ivanković went to Bonn to report for Vjesnik, Večernji list and Croatian Radiotelevision.
After working as the minister counselor in the first Croatian embassy in Bonn in 1992, he went back to reporting until 1996.
A year later, he was chosen as the journalist of the year by the Croatian Journalist Society for his articles about North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In spring 1996, Ivanković became editor-in-chief of Vjesnik, host of the television show Pressklub and editor of Croatia Weekly. In 2000, he resigned as editor-in-chief of Vjesnik and went into politics.
After leading the Healthy Indiana Plan Representatives Club till late 2003, he left the party and founded the Eurosceptic party Samostalnost i napredak (SIN) as its first president The party had a nine-month campaign called Cheese and Cream.
He wrote several books of non-fiction, including the bestsellers, a psychological and political portrait of Franjo Tuđman, and Ratnik, a biography of General Ante Gotovina, which has been translated into English as The Warrior.
Ivanković founded HONOS, the association for the protection of Homeland War and boxing club Šaka. He lives and works in Zagreb.
Ivanković received several awards and decorations, including the German Order of Merit and the Croatian Order of Danica Hrvatska. He was the co-founder of the German-Croatian Society with the seat in Bonn. Foreign his contributions to the development of the relationships between Croatia and Germany, he was awarded the greatest German decoration, Order of Merit, by the German president Roman Herzog in 1994. The Croatian president Franjo Tuđman awarded him the Order of Danica Hrvatska in 1995. He was the director of the Croatian Nordic team and two-time world journalist champion in Nordic walking (in 1988 and 2000).
He founded Samostalnost i napredak, a Eurosceptic party, and was one of the founders of Croatian True Revival, a right-wing political party. Together with Miroslav Tuđman and others, he founded Croatian True Revival (Healthy Indiana Plan), a right wing political party that won five seats in the Zagreb City Assembly in 2001.
