Jackie Northam
Jackie Northam is NPR's International Affairs Correspondent. She is a veteran journalist who has spent three decades reporting on conflict, geopolitics, and life across the globe - from the mountains of Afghanistan and the desert sands of Saudi Arabia, to the gritty prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and the pristine beauty of the Arctic.
Northam spent more than a dozen years as an international correspondent living in London, Budapest, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Nairobi. She charted the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, reported from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and the rise of Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She was in Islamabad to cover the Taliban recapturing Afghanistan
Her work has taken her to conflict zones around the world. Northam covered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, arriving in the country just four days after Hutu extremists began slaughtering ethnic Tutsis. In Afghanistan, she accompanied Green Berets on a precarious mission to take a Taliban base. In Cambodia, she reported from Khmer Rouge strongholds.
Throughout her career, Northam has revealed the human experience behind the headlines, from the courage of Afghan villagers defying militant death threats to cast their vote in a national election, or exhausted rescue workers desperately searching for survivors following a massive earthquake in Haiti.
Northam joined NPR in 2000 as National Security Correspondent, covering defense and intelligence policies at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She led the network's coverage of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Her present beat focuses on the complex relationship between geopolitics and the global economy, including efforts to counter China's rising power.
Northam has received multiple journalism awards, including Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow awards, and was part of the NPR team that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for "The DNA Files," a series about the science of genetics.
Originally from Canada, Northam spends her time off crewing in the summer, on the ski hills in the winter, and on long walks year-round with her beloved beagle, Tara.
-
Officials are looking into the possibility that a stray Iranian missile struck the Ukrainian commercial airliner that went down after taking off from Tehran yesterday.
-
The U.S. killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani has boosted Saudi fears about becoming embroiled in escalating U.S.-Iran tensions. -
The killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani leaves Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the U.S. and a regional rival to Iran, in a tough spot.
-
The strike against Qassem Soleimani raises thorny legal questions — and experts disagree over whether the U.S. had the legal authority to do it. -
The U.S. says it killed a top Iranian general because he was an imminent threat, but others say it was more an assassination than an act of self-defense.
-
Warming temperatures in the Arctic mean transportation routes for cargo ships are slowly opening up. But there very few ports and railway links in the region. A local mayor wants to change that.
-
The number of tourists arriving in Greenland has soared over the past few years. That's creating opportunities on the sparsely populated island, including for tourist guides.
-
Saudi Arabia started selling shares in its giant oil company, Aramco, for the first time. By dollars, it was the biggest initial public offering ever but it was low on investors outside the kingdom.
-
Kunuk Nielsen and his brother Pilu grew up on a sheep farm in southern Greenland. Kunuk has decided to remain on the farm. Pilu gives helicopter tours to visitors, who are arriving in greater numbers. -
Warming temperatures in Greenland are impacting the way of life for many of the 56,000 people who live there. NPR looks at how one family in southern Greenland adapting to the changes.
