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Deborah Amos

Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of Iraq. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1991-1992, Amos returned to Harvard in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School.

In 2003, Amos returned to NPR after a decade in television news, including ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, and the PBS programs NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline.

When Amos first came to NPR in 1977, she worked first as a director and then a producer for Weekend All Things Considered until 1979. For the next six years, she worked on radio documentaries, which won her several significant honors. In 1982, Amos received the Prix Italia, the Ohio State Award, and a DuPont-Columbia Award for "Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown," and in 1984 she received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "Refugees."

From 1985 until 1993, Amos spend most of her time at NPR reporting overseas, including as the London Bureau Chief and as an NPR foreign correspondent based in Amman, Jordan. During that time, Amos won several awards, including a duPont-Columbia Award and a Breakthru Award, and widespread recognition for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Amos is also the author of Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992).

Amos is a Ferris Professor at Princeton, where she teaches journalism during the fall term.

Amos began her career after receiving a degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida at Gainesville.

  • The flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, flutters on the dome of an Armenian Catholic Church in the northern rebel-held Syrian city of Raqqa on Sept. 28, 2013. At first, Syrian rebels and civilians welcomed the experienced Islamist fighters, and the groups fought together to take over the city from Syrian troops. Now, many Syrians fear and resent ISIS.
    As Rebels Fight Rebels, Grim Reports From A Syrian City
    Deborah Amos
    Syria's civil war keeps getting more complicated. In the latest twist, fractious rebel groups have united to fight extremists linked to al-Qaida. Both sides oppose the Syrian government, but for now they are pointing their guns at each other and a nasty battle is taking place in the northern city of Raqqa.
  • Smoke from heavy shelling rises above buildings in Dara'a, Syria, on Aug. 28.
    Syrian Rebels: U.S. Distracted By Focus On Chemical Weapons
    Deborah Amos
    Syrian rebel groups say the pipeline of weapons, ammunition and nonlethal aid pledged by the U.S. has slowed in recent weeks, as the Obama administration has shifted focus to destroying President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons. The rebels have a broader goal: destroying the Assad regime.
  • Refugees fill cans with water inside a camp in Baalbek, Lebanon, for Syrians who have fled the fighting in their country.
    NPR Health
    As Doctors Leave Syria, Public Health Crisis Looms
    Deborah Amos
    As the civil war continues, a new study says Syria's health care system is near collapse. Outbreaks of disease are on the rise in the country, and refugees sheltered beyond the border are also at great risk.
  • Ahmad "Harvester" Heidar is a computer software engineer whose work for the Syrian rebels includes sweeping the hard drives of detained anti-government activists, and trying to develop a robot that will help extract sniper victims in Syria. Turkish officials have given Heidar the green light to develop a prototype of his robot, which he calls Tina.
    Syrian Cyber-Rebel Wages War, One Hack At A Time
    Deborah Amos
    A 28-year-old computer wizard known as the Harvester, along with his online rebel friends, have hacked into a pro-regime TV station as part of their ongoing battle against the government's electronic army.
  • Syrians lift a wounded rebel fighter to take him into a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, in October. Doctors have few supplies to treat wounded fighters in Syria.
    U.S. Doctors Provide Supplies, Training To Syrians
    Deborah Amos
    After months of revolt, Syria's health care system is collapsing, with half of the country's public hospitals destroyed. Yet Syrian doctors continue to treat patients. Now, a group of Syrian-American doctors is stepping in to help bring crucial supplies and training.
  • Syria's ongoing fighting is increasingly a sectarian conflict with the majority Sunni Muslims facing off against the Alawites who make up most of the country's ruling elite. Here, government opponents rally in the northern town of Mareh on June 29.
    A Syrian Defector Confronts A Sectarian Divide
    Deborah Amos
    The fighting in Syria often pits Sunni Muslims, who make up a large majority of the population, versus Alawites, who control many leadership positions. An Alawite who joined the anti-government forces finds he is sometimes viewed with suspicion.
  • Dr. Yahya Abdul Rahim (left) and Dr. Ammar Ghanem are among the Syrian-American doctors who have come to the Turkish-Syrian border to help Syrians wounded in the anti-government revolt. Some work to improve the flow of supplies; others treat patients in Turkey; still others, like Ghanem, strap backpacks on and walk across the border to help those in Syria.
    For Syrian-American Doctors, A Painful Homecoming
    Deborah Amos
    Joining efforts to help victims of the war in Syria, Syrian-American doctors are bringing desperately needed supplies and knowledge to facilities in Turkey overwhelmed by the wounded. Some are treating Syrians there, while others are crossing the border to use their skills on the battlefield.
  • Dr. Yahya Abdul Rahim (left) and Dr. Ammar Ghanem are among the Syrian-American doctors who have come to the Turkish-Syrian border to help Syrians wounded in the anti-government revolt. Some work to improve the flow of supplies; others treat patients in Turkey; still others, like Ghanem, strap backpacks on and walk across the border to help those in Syria.
    For Syrian-American Doctors, A Painful Homecoming
    Deborah Amos
    Joining efforts to help victims of the war in Syria, Syrian-American doctors are bringing desperately needed supplies and knowledge to facilities in Turkey overwhelmed by the wounded. Some are treating Syrians there, while others are crossing the border to use their skills on the battlefield.
  • Syrian activist Karam Nachar is pursuing a doctorate in Middle Eastern history at Princeton. His family is working on several fronts against the Syrian regime. His father, who has been jailed previously, helped form the Syrian National Council, an organization of dissidents.
    Across Continents, Syrian Family Seeks Assad's Ouster
    Deborah Amos
    The Nachar family had a reputation for opposing the Assads' rule even before last year's uprising. They're even more active now. Family members have protested outside the United Nations, raised money to supply the rebels and helped establish an opposition political movement.
  • Is The Arab Spring Good Or Bad For The U.S.?
    Deborah Amos
    For decades, the U.S. sought stability in the Middle East. But the upheavals of the past year have left the region in flux, and the U.S. is trying to define a new policy for dealing with changes that are still playing out.
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