Christina Goldbaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning international correspondent for The New York Times and its Beirut bureau chief, leading coverage of Lebanon and Syria. She has reported from the front lines of conflicts and political upheavals across Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, including famine and the expanding U.S. military campaign in Somalia, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, two wars in Lebanon and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.
Christina joined The Times in 2018, reporting from New York and later southern Africa before moving to Kabul in 2021, weeks before the Taliban seized the capital. She spent the next three years covering Afghanistan and Pakistan, embedding with smugglers, armed rebels and migrants, interviewing jihadist fighters and eventually serving as bureau chief. She later reported across Lebanon and Syria as the Beirut bureau chief.
Before joining The Times, Christina spent four years as a freelance correspondent in East Africa, reporting for Foreign Policy, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, among other publications. She was based for more than a year in Mogadishu, where her investigations into U.S. military operations exposed civilian casualties and received awards from the Livingston Awards, the National Press Club and the Frontline Club.
Her work has also been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the South Asian Journalists Association and the Gerald Loeb Awards. In 2025, Christina and two colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for an investigation examining how U.S. policies during the war in Afghanistan helped lay the groundwork for its defeat.
Originally from Washington, D.C., Christina holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University.
Awards & Accolades
Citation, Kim Wall Award, Overseas Press Club – 2026
The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting – 2025
The Hal Boyle Award, Overseas Press Club – 2024
The Daniel Pearl Award, South Asian Journalists Association – 2024
The Hal Boyle Award, Overseas Press Club – 2021
The Gerald Loeb Award for Visual Storytelling – 2021
Livingston Award for International Reporting – 2018
Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence, The National Press Club – 2018