Title: SFS journalist alumni tell the world’s stories

Diplomats and other civil servants advance their national interests on the world’s stage using a variety of tools. Journalism plays a critical role in documenting these affairs and illuminating and revealing the people and issues that shape the global order. In an era punctuated by rising authoritarianism, rampant misinformation and rapidly evolving technologies, hearing and learning from ethical, reliable journalists is vital.

The responsibility to share facts, context and analysis about important events organically aligns with the call to service felt by those who study international affairs, so it’s no surprise that more than a few SFS alumni have become journalists. We caught up with several of them to learn about their journeys from student to reporter, lessons learned on the beat and how their international affairs education continues to shape their work.

Engaging the global community on the Hilltop

“SFS quickly taught me how big, complicated and connected the world was,” says Lawrence Delevingne (SFS’05), an enterprise reporter at Reuters for the last 10 years, now based in Boston. While Delevingne’s reporting mainly lies in the financial sector, he collaborates with reporters from all over the world, as Reuters employs nearly 2,600 journalists in 165 countries.

In his time on the Hilltop as a culture and politics major, with a focus on Africa, Delevingne recalls the diversity not only in the geographic makeup of his peers, but in their political and social views as well: “I like to think I learned a lot by listening to my classmates about how they saw the world; it was good practice for minimizing my own bias and getting a full picture of a subject before putting out a story.”

Annabelle Timsit (SFS’17) is a London-based, breaking news reporter for The Washington Post. She previously worked at Quartz and The Atlantic, and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 and Gracie Award honoree. She came to Georgetown from Paris, France, to study international politics. As a French-American student, Timsit also appreciated the large international population of the university as well as its location at the heart of the U.S. political system.

“Studying at the SFS shaped my worldview because it allowed me to meet people from all over the U.S. and the world and be exposed to their points of view on geopolitical issues, which opened my mind to different ways of thinking,” Timsit says.

From the classroom to the newsroom

Eric Bazail-Eimil (SFS’23, LAS’26) is a national security reporter at POLITICO and co-author of the publication’s National Security Daily newsletter. He has had a range of experiences at the intersection of journalism and global affairs, from covering President Joe Biden’s Quad summit in Wilmington, Delaware, to traveling with a Ukrainian official on a German Marshall Fund tour aimed at engaging rural communities on the war in Ukraine.

He has also leaned on the French and Portuguese skills he acquired at Georgetown in daily interactions with diplomats and government officials.

“Speaking to people as an American journalist in their language and speaking it well, I find, eases some of the tension in a conversation. And that leads to some better storytelling in the process,” he says.

Meg Kinnard (SFS’02), a reporter with The Associated Press, was an international politics major with a concentration in international security studies. While classes like Theory and Practice of International Negotiation first introduced her to the inner workings of foreign service, it was getting involved with The Georgetown Independent, taking journalism courses and interning at The Washington Post that truly allowed her to reimagine what this service could look like: “I came into SFS thinking that I would serve as a diplomat or elsewhere within the government, but the opportunity to immerse myself in campus journalism made me realize that I might be able to contribute to our national discourse in a different way.”

Journalism as a global affairs tool

Bazail-Eimil stresses the importance of regional expertise, especially as growing trends in foreign affairs and media increasingly focus on broad themes that transcend borders.

“Without regional expertise in this business,” he says, “one might not understand the cultures and semiotics of specific places when a big story breaks and everyone’s rushing to find out more.”

At the same time, the value of journalism today lies not only in covering events but also in promoting broader skills such as cooperation, objectivity and transparency. Timsit credits her international affairs education for nurturing critical thinking skills, which have allowed her to better cover everything from wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the global dimensions of poverty-reduction policies and programs in Rwanda.

“The SFS taught me to seriously consider the other side of any issue, which I believe has helped me be fairer and more balanced in my reporting,” Timsit says.

The interdependence of global affairs has shaped Kinnard’s approach to journalism throughout her career covering national politics: “Nothing happens in true isolation, so whether it’s been covering business development, cultural events or presidential campaigns, having an understanding of how far the ripple effects of one thing can travel, and how different organizations can or need to work together on an issue has helped me every step of the way.”

Delevingne ties the thread together, underscoring the enduring importance of journalism’s core values in an increasingly noisy and fragmented information landscape:

“I like to think there will always be value and impact from deeply reported, fact-based, neutral journalism. There’s a rigor to achieving that ideal that shouldn’t change, whether covering foreign affairs, politics or otherwise. As the volume of information put in front of people accelerates, including from influencers and AI, it underscores the need for trusted sources of news that can help people sift through and understand the world around them.”

Note: Annabelle Timsit headshot courtesy of Bill O’Leary, The Washington Post