Arthur Ross Media Award
Arthur Ross Media Award
for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs
The American Academy of Diplomacy annually honors one outstanding reporter and one distinguished commentator with its two Arthur Ross Awards for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs. The awards, endowed by and given in honor of the late Arthur Ross, seek to recognize individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., a news bureau) whose reporting and analysis on diplomacy and foreign affairs is making a singular contribution to public understanding of the critical role played by diplomacy in the furtherance of America’s foreign policy interests. One award is given to a journalist/reporter and another to a commentator/columnist. Each award includes a cash stipend of $5,000.
Recipient - 2025
Nahal Toosi is POLITICO’s senior foreign affairs correspondent. She has reported on war, genocide and political chaos in a career that has taken her around the world. Her reported column delves into the decision-making of the global national security and foreign policy establishment — and the fallout that comes from it.
In 2019, Toosi was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in reporting for her story on the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Toosi joined POLITICO from The Associated Press, where she reported from and/or served as an editor in New York, Islamabad, Kabul and London. She was one of the first foreign correspondents to reach Abbottabad, Pakistan, after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Prior to joining the AP, Toosi worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she mostly covered higher education but also managed to report from Iraq during the U.S. invasion in 2003, as well as several other countries.
Toosi is a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she spent most of her time at the college paper, The Daily Tar Heel.
Recipient - 2025
Nic Robertson is CNN’s award-winning International Diplomatic Editor whose experience, knowledge and expertise have established his reputation as one of the finest international correspondents in the industry. While based in the London bureau, he travels extensively, covering diplomacy, political instability, global terrorism, wars, armed conflicts as well as natural disasters. Since joining CNN in 1990, he has been on many of the biggest news stories around the world.
From the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, Robertson’s storied career has given him a ringside seat to history. He has borne witness to the death and birth of nations, and catalogued our changing world order.
Robertson has worked in conflict zones across the globe. He has reported from under coalition bombing in two Gulf wars, and was one of the only journalists who stayed to report from inside Taliban-held Afghanistan as the 9/11 terror attacks unfolded. From the Balkans to Pakistan and throughout the Middle East, Robertson has broken news and won awards for compelling eyewitness reporting, documentaries and in-depth news reports, and has repeatedly pioneered the use of innovative technology in the field. He has been instrumental to CNN’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reporting extensively from the front lines of these conflicts, most recently with exclusive access in Yemen, and leveraging his sources to provide insight into rapidly unfolding developments.
As CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor, Robertson has covered most global leadership summits in recent years, including multiple G7 and G20 meetings, and is a leading voice in the network’s coverage unravelling political developments in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States.
Throughout his career, Robertson has been a recipient of nearly every prestigious award in the industry, including multiple Emmys, Peabodys, duPont Awards, RTS awards, a Foreign Press Association Award, a Prix Bayeux award and several Overseas Press Club honors.
