Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting
For over 50 years, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) has honored international journalists for reporting that has contributed invaluably to our understanding of the most urgent international issues.
ISD’s Weintal Trust was endowed by the late Edward Weintal, a Polish diplomat and diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek Magazine.
The Edward Weintal Prize is presented to one or more journalists for distinguished reporting on foreign policy and diplomacy. The award is open to journalists in both print and broadcast media and includes a lecture and reception hosted by the institute.
The Weintal Trust also provides two-year scholarships for graduate students in the Master of Science in Foreign Service program.
2025 Weintal Prize: Declan Walsh
In 2025, ISD honored Declan Walsh, the New York Times’ Chief Africa Correspondent, for his stellar reporting on the Sudanese civil war. Declan uncovered the networks by which outside powers, especially the Gulf States, financed, backed and benefited from the ongoing conflict.
Past awardees
Awards by decade
2025
- Declan Walsh, Chief Africa Correspondent, The New York Times
2024
- Edward Wong, Diplomatic Correspondent, The New York Times
2016
- Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief, The Atlantic
2013
- Tom Brokaw, NBC News Special Correspondent
2011
- John Pomfret, Foreign Correspondent, The Washington Post, recognized for his reporting on American-Chinese relations
- Dexter Filkins, Staff Writer, The New Yorker, recognized for his work reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan with The New York Times
- com & Susan Glasser, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy; Founding Editor, Politico Magazine
2010
- Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, ABC News; Co-anchor, This Week with George Stephanopoulos
- Steve Coll, President of The New America Foundation; Visiting Senior Editor, The Economist
2009
- Deborah Amos, International Correspondent on the Middle East, NPR
- Jane Mayer, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
- Carol Giacomo, Chief Editor, Arms Control Today; Foreign Affairs Member of the Editorial Board, The New York Times
- D.S. Greenway, Columnist, Foreign Affairs; Foreign Correspondent, Time Magazine and The Washington Post; Former Foreign Editor, National Editor, and Opinion Page Editor, The Boston Globe
2008
- Trudy Rubin, Foreign Affairs Columnist and Member of Editorial Board, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Margaret Warner, Senior Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Special citation
- Walter Pincus, Reporter, The Washington Post
2007
- Carlotta Gall, Senior Correspondent, The New York Times
- Anthony Shadid, Islamic Affairs Correspondent, The Washington Post
Special citations
- Jonathan Landay & Warren Strobel, Senior National Security Correspondent and Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, McClatchy Newspapers
- Martin Smith, Senior Producer, PBS’s FRONTLINE
2006
- Anne Garrels, Foreign Correspondent, National Public Radio
- George Packer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic; Staff Writer, The New Yorker from 2003 to 2018
Special citations
- Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent, CNN
- Garry Trudeau, Cartoonist; Creator and Executive Producer, Alpha House
2005
- John F. Burns, Chief of Baghdad Bureau and Chief Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times
- Seymour Hersh, Investigative Journalist and Contributor to The New Yorker, recognized for his reporting on human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib
Special citations
- David Ignatius, Associate Editor and Columnist, The Washington Post
- Bernard Kalb, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs; Former Spokesman for the U.S. State Department; Correspondent for CBS, NBC, and The New York Times
2004
- David Sanger, White House and National Security Correspondent, The New York Times, recognized for his reporting in Iraq and Korea
- Steven Weisman, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, The New York Times, recognized for his reporting on the lead-up to the Iraq war
Special citation
- Daniel Schorr, Senior News Analyst, NPR
2003
- Karen DeYoung, Associate Editor and Senior National Security Correspondent, The Washington Post, recognized for her reporting on the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq
- Carla Anne Robbins, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Co-host, The World Next Week Podcast; News Editor, The Wall Street Journal
2002
- Daniel Pearl (Posthumously), South Asia Bureau Chief, The Wall Street Journal
- Lois Raimondo, Staff Photographer, The Washington Post
2001
- Peter Jennings, Anchor, World News Tonight
- Robin Wright, Contributing Author and Columnist, The New Yorker; Former Diplomatic Correspondent, The Washington Post; Fellow of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center
2000
- Betsy Hiel, Foreign Correspondent, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- Jim Wooten, Foreign Correspondent, ABC News
1999
- Tom Fenton, London Bureau Chief, CBS News
- Jim Mann, Diplomatic Correspondent and Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Los Angeles Times
Special citation
- Kenneth W. Thompson, Director, University of Virginia’s Miller Center
1998
- Peter Arnett, Foreign Correspondent, CNN
- Christopher Dickey, Foreign Correspondent and Chief of Mexico and Central America Bureau, The Washington Post; World News Editor, The Daily Beast
- Alessandra Stanley, Co-chief of Moscow Bureau, The New York Times
Special citation
- Benjamin Welles, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
1997
- Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times
- Bob Simon, Senior Foreign Correspondent, CBS’s 60 Minutes
1996
- Barry Schweid, Diplomatic Correspondent, The Associated Press
- Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent, CNN
- Mike Hanna, Middle East Bureau Chief, CNN; Former Johannesburg Bureau Chief
Special citation
- David D. Newsom, Former U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Indonesia, and the Philippines; Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Columnist, The Christian Science Monitor
1995
- Barrie Dunsmore, Fellow, Center for the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University; Foreign Affairs Correspondent, ABC News
- Daniel Southerland, Former Beijing Bureau Chief, The Washington Post
Special citation
- Peter F. Krogh, Dean, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service; White House Fellow; Special Assistant to the Secretary of State
1994
- W. Apple, Jr., Washington Bureau Chief, The New York Times
- Ralph Begleiter, World Affairs Correspondent, CNN
1993
- Don Oberdorfer, President of the Overseas Writers Association; Diplomatic, White House, and Northeast Asia Correspondent, The Washington Post
- Sylvia Poggioli, Senior European Correspondent, NPR
1992
- Peter Gumbel, Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
- Gerald Seib, Political Editor, The Wall Street Journal, recognized for his coverage of the Gulf War
- Robert MacNeil, Anchor and Co-founder, PBS NewsHour
- James Lehrer, Anchor and Co-founder, PBS NewsHour
Special citation
- James Reston, Executive Editor and Senior Columnist, The New York Times
1991
- Peter Jennings, Anchor, World News Tonight
- Caryle Murphy, Cairo Bureau Chief, The Washington Post, recognized for her reporting from Iraqi-occupied Kuwait
1990
- Vitaly Korotich, Editor-in-Chief, Ogonyok Magazine, recognized for work promoting press freedom in the former USSR
- Ted Turner, Founder of CNN
Special citation
- Paul H. Nitze, Former Secretary of Defense; Special Advisor to President Reagan on Arms Control
1989
- Linda Cavanaugh, Anchor, KFOR-TV, recognized for reporting from the Soviet Union
- Dana Fowler, Executive Producer, KFOR-TV
- Tony Stizza, Photographer, KFOR-TV
- James H. McCartney, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent and Columnist, Knight Ridder
Special citation
- Allen Neuharth, Founder of USA TODAY
1988
- Elizabeth Drew, Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker
- Cokie Roberts, Contributor, PBS NewsHour
- John Walcott, National Security Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
- Judy Woodruff, Chief Washington Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Special citation
- John P. Wallach, Foreign Editor, Hearst Newspapers
1987
- Alan Berlow, Freelance Journalist
- Bill Buzenberg, Vice President of News, NPR
- Jon M. Sawyer, Staff Reporter, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Special citation
- Bernard M. Gwertzman, Author of Fulbright: The Dissenter
1986
- Ted Koppel, Anchor, Nightline
- Doyle McManus, Washington Columnist, The Los Angeles Times
- Robert C. Toth, Moscow Correspondent, The Los Angeles Times
Special citation (posthumously)
- Joseph Kraft, Foreign Affairs and National Security Correspondent, The Los Angeles Times
Special citation
- Cord Meyer, Columnist, The Washington Times
1985
- Tom Brokaw, Anchor, NBC Nightly News
- Bryant Gumbel, Anchor, The Today Show
- John Hart, Correspondent, NBC Nightly News
- Marvin Kalb, Moderator, Meet the Press
- Garrick Utley, News Anchor, Sunday Today
- David Ignatius, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Special Weintal Certificate
- Strobe Talbott, Correspondent on Soviet-American Relations, Time Magazine
1984
- Dusko Doder, Foreign Correspondent, The Washington Post, recognized for his reporting from Moscow
- Bernard M. Gwertzman, Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times
Special Weintal Certificate of Respect
- Georgie Anne Geyer, Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Chicago Daily News
Distinguished Diplomat Award
- Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Former U.S. Secretary of State
1983
- William Beecher, Columnist, The Boston Globe, recognized for his reporting on the nuclear arms race
- Andrew Stern, Founder of UC Berkeley’s Journalism School and PBS Documentary Producer
1982
- Don Oberdorfer, Diplomatic Correspondent, The Washington Post
- Henry Trewhitt, Diplomatic Correspondent, The Baltimore Sun
Special citation
- John Chancellor, Anchor, NBC Nightly News
1981
- John Carson-Parker, Financial Correspondent, Businessweek, recognized for his reporting on the debt economy
- Thomas Gibson
- Geoffrey Godsell, Overseas News Editor, The Christian Science Monitor, recognized for his reporting on the Iran-Iraq war
- David K. Willis, Author of Klass: How Russians Really Live
Special citation
- Gerard C. Smith, Former North American Chairman of the Trilateral Commission
1980
- Karen Elliott House, Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal
- Jonathan Randal, Foreign Correspondent, The United Press, The Press Herald, The New York Times, and The Washington Post
- Strobe Talbott, Correspondent on Soviet-American Relations, Time Magazine
- John P. Wallach, Foreign Editor, Hearst Newspapers
Special citation
- Henry A. Kissinger, Former U.S. Secretary of State
1979
- Richard Dudman, Chief Washington Correspondent, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, recognized for his reporting in Vietnam
- Joseph Harsch, Reporter, The Christian Science Monitor
1978
- Flora Lewis, Foreign and Diplomatic Correspondent, The New York Times
- Keyes Beech, Foreign Correspondent, The Los Angeles Times
Special citations
- Eric Sevareid, Reporter, CBS News
- L. Sulzberger, Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times
1977
- John Midgley, Washington Correspondent, The Economist
- Adelbert de Segonzac, Washington Correspondent, France-Soir
- Werner Imhoof, Chief Washington Correspondent, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
1976
- Peter Lisagor, Washington Bureau Chief, The Chicago Daily News
1975
- Chalmers Roberts, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, The Washington Post
About Edward Weintal
Edward Weintal (1901-1973)
Edward Weintal was a noted diplomat and journalist. He was born on March 21, 1901, the son of David and Leone (Graff) Weintal. Edward received a B.A. from St. Catherine’s College at Oxford in 1924.
Edward Weintal arrived in the United States in 1928, and he served with the Polish Foreign Service from that year until 1935. From 1935 to 1939, Weintal worked as director of the Polish Information Bureau. In 1939, he embarked on a career in journalism as a foreign correspondent in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1944, Weintal had a long tenure at the news periodical “Newsweek,” serving as, in turn, diplomatic correspondent, chief European correspondent, and contributing editor. Weintal wrote for “Newsweek” until 1969. From 1969 to 1973, Weintal worked for the director of the USIA.
In 1941, Edward Weintal became a naturalized United States citizen. In 1967, with Charles Bartlett, he published the book “Facing the Brink: An Intimate Study of Crisis Diplomacy” (New York: Scribner, 1967).
Edward Weintal died on January 24, 1973.