The Profile Dossier Classic: Clarissa Ward, the Journalist Covering the World's Most Dangerous Places

"When you do this work you see the worst of humanity, but you also see the best."

A note from Polina: I first published this Profile Dossier two years ago, so I wanted to re-surface it in light of the tragic events taking place in Israel right now. Clarissa Ward is one of the foreign correspondents covering the conflict. Here she is reporting from a ditch amid rockets flying over the Israel-Gaza border.

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Clarissa Ward is a teller of the hardest stories in the world's most dangerous places.

Ward is a conflict reporter who moves from hot zone to hot zone all over the world. She speaks seven languages and has completed multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, Russia, China, Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Most recently, she was working 19-hour days in Kabul, Afghanistan, covering the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s sudden return to power. She delivered her reports calmly without showing too much emotion on air.

At one point, she spoke with a Taliban fighter who shoved his hand forward to block her cameraman’s lens, told her to cover her face, and waved a whip made of heavy chain and a padlock. He told her that the chaotic scene around the Kabul airport was America’s fault.

“I appear calm, but that doesn’t mean I am calm,” she said. “I don’t panic because you can’t panic in those situations. If you are someone who panics, then you probably should be doing a different job, because it will get you into more trouble. But it doesn’t mean I’m calm on the inside. That’s just the way I deal with fear: I get quiet and very focused.”

That seemingly superhuman ability to focus in high-stress situations is part of what has made Ward a world-renowned war-zone correspondent. She gives viewers a rare look at the events happening on the ground, often contradicting what the political heads are telling their citizens on the other side of the globe.

Polina @polina_marinova

This is a really great reminder that high-brow political rhetoric rarely matches what’s actually happening on the ground. What incredible reporting by @clarissaward

Interestingly though, Ward's upbringing is quite paradoxical to the work she does today.

She was born in London to an American mother and a British father. Her mom worked as an interior designer, and her dad was an investment banker. She had 11 different nannies by the age of 8. Her family lived in New York City's Upper East Side for a little bit, and Ward went on to attend elite British boarding schools. "I’m an only child, and while I had a very privileged upbringing in London, I was always a bit lonely as a kid," she says.

Ward's passion for international reporting arose from a passion of learning new languages and understanding foreign cultures. “It may sound a little corny and clichéd,” she says, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, gave her a new perspective on life.

“It [became] clear to me that there was a huge chasm between the way we perceived ourselves as a nation and the way the rest of the world perceived us," she said.

It forced her to begin asking uncomfortable questions and helped her develop an "insatiable appetite" to better understand what was going on around the world. She already spoke French and Italian but added Russian and Arabic to her course load.

“It sounds presumptuous, but I knew I had to go to the front lines, to hear the stories of people who lived there and tell them to the people back home,” she wrote in her book.

Ward began her journalism career in 2003 as an overnight desk assistant at Fox News, working from 12 a.m. to 9 a.m. She worked her way up to international correspondent and covered the execution of Saddam Hussein, the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, the Beirut Arab University riots, and the 2007 Bikfaya bombings.

From there, she spent several years at ABC and CBS before becoming the chief international correspondent for CNN, where she has worked for the last six years.

Ward is very clear about the fact that she understands the risks associated with her profession, but she wouldn't change anything about what she does for a living. She has smuggled herself in and out of war-torn countries, witnessed suicide bombings, and interviewed activists, rebels, and terrorists.

“I absolutely love my job. I feel so privileged,” she says. “I get to travel the world, I get to witness history… and I’m constantly inspired by the different amazing characters I meet along the way.”

At the end of the day, Ward sees herself as "a translator between worlds" who helps remind the viewer that "beyond the geopolitics of power and the brutality of war and the clashes of cultures, people are people.”

(Photo Credit: CNN)

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