Reporting from the frontlines: A conversation on the changing face of war 

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

Jodie Ginsberg is the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists. A journalist by profession, Ginsberg joined CPJ in 2022 from Internews Europe, where she was the chief executive officer. Ginsberg began her career as a graduate trainee with Reuters news agency, working as a commodities reporter before taking up a posting as a foreign correspondent in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she focused on the region’s financial sector. She subsequently worked as Reuters’ chief correspondent in Ireland, based in Dublin, and then bureau chief for the U.K. and Ireland. As bureau chief, Ginsberg managed coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, U.K. riots and 2010 general election, as well as overseeing the merger of the Thomson and Reuters U.K. newsrooms. In 2014, Ginsberg was appointed chief executive of London-based freedom of expression group Index on Censorship, which she led until 2020. An internationally respected campaigner on issues of media freedom and freedom of expression, Ginsberg is a regular speaker on journalist safety and issues involving access to information. From 2020 to 2022, she was chief executive of Internews Europe, a media development non-profit, and has served on the boards of the Global Network Initiative and The Trust for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and as a Council member of IFEX, the international network for freedom of expression organizations. Ginsberg has a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.

Laetitia Courtois is permanent observer to the United Nations and head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s New York City Delegation.

Prior to joining the NYC delegation in March 2020, Courtois was the head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for Caracas. Since December 2017, she led the ICRC in Venezuela in responding to the most pressing humanitarian needs related to the violence and other emergencies, in a country hit by an unprecedented economic, political and social crisis.

Previously, Ms. Courtois was the deputy head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for Mexico, Central America and Cuba. She supported the development of ICRC’s activities in Mexico and Central America, focusing on responses to migration & internal displacement, missing persons and the use of force in law enforcement operations.

Before Mexico, she was deputy regional director for Asia, based in ICRC Headquarters in Geneva. She has also served as head of Sub-Delegation in Bukavu (Democratic Republic of the Congo), in Nablus (Palestine) and in Biratnagar (Nepal). She started her career at the ICRC as delegate in Colombia in 2006.

She graduated from the Aix-en-Provence Political Studies Institute, and has a Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Action of the Aix-Marseille University Law School (France) and the Uppsala Peace Study Centre (Sweden). Ms. Courtois is married and is a mother of one.

Vivian Salama is a national security reporter for the Wall Street Journal. She has covered U.S. foreign policy and national security for nearly two decades, reporting from more than 80 countries. She has spent much of last year travelling to Ukraine to cover the war.

Since moving to Washington in 2016, Salama has covered the White House and national security for The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News, and the Associated Press, with a focus on foreign policy. Over the course of her career, she has called Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Israel and the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates home. Before moving to Washington, Salama was Baghdad bureau chief for the Associated Press, covering the rise and fall of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, as well as Iran's growing influence across the region. She also covered the refugee and IDP crisis spurred by the violence, visiting camps across the Middle East. The experience inspired Salama to write a children's book -- The Long Journey Home -- about an innocent Syrian boy who is forced to flee his home because of the war.

Prior to her posting in Iraq, Salama had covered the Arab Spring uprisings -- and their fallout -- writing extensively about the political, economic and social implications of the protests. She also wrote at length about U.S. foreign policy in the region, as well as its evolution with the new regimes that came to power following the protests. Salama has also spent time in Yemen investigating the U.S. targeted killing program, traveling repeatedly to al-Qaeda strongholds in the country documenting civilian casualties.

Salama is a fluent Arabic speaker and has working knowledge in Spanish. Salama has a law degree from Georgetown University, a Master's from Columbia University in Islamic Politics and a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Rutgers University. She authored a lengthy study, published in a book entitled Radicalization, Terrorism and Conflict, which examines the ways in which radical militant organizations use the Internet to promote their ideologies to a wider audience and recruit potential followers around the world. She is a native of New York and currently lives in Washington, DC.