Michael Sullivan
Michael Sullivan is NPR's Senior Asia Correspondent. He moved to Hanoi to open NPR's Southeast Asia Bureau in 2003. Before that, he spent six years as NPR's South Asia correspondent based in but seldom seen in New Delhi.
Michael was in Pakistan on 9-11 and spent much of the next two years there and in Afghanistan covering the run up to and the aftermath of the U.S. military campaign to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda. Michael has also reported extensively on terrorism in Southeast Asia, including both Bali bombings. He also covered the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Michael was the first NPR reporter on the ground in both Thailand and the Indonesian province of Aceh following the devastating December 2004 tsunami. He has returned to Aceh more than half a dozen times since to document the recovery and reconstruction effort. As a reporter in NPR's London bureau in the early 1990s he covered the fall of the Soviet Union, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before moving to New Delhi, Michael was senior producer on NPR's foreign desk. He has worked in more than 60 countries on five continents, covering conflicts in Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Chechnya, and the Middle East. Prior to joining the foreign desk, Michael spent several years as producer and acting executive producer of NPR's All Things Considered.
As a reporter, Michael is the recipient of several Overseas Press Club Awards and Citations for Excellence for stories from Haiti, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. He was also part of the NPR team that won an Alfred I DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of 9-11 and the war in Afghanistan. In 2004 he was honored by the South Asia Journalists Association (SAJA) with a Special Recognition Award for his 'outstanding work' from 1998-2003 as NPR's South Asia correspondent.
As a producer and editor, Michael has been honored by the Overseas Press Club for work from Bosnia and Haiti; a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for a story about life in Sarajevo during wartime; and a World Hunger Award for stories from Eritrea.
Michael's wife, Martha Ann Overland, is Southeast Asia correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and also writes commentaries on living abroad for NPR. They have two children.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He's been at NPR since 1985.
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While visiting Vietnam last week, President Obama urged the government to ease its crackdown on dissent. But police have used force to break up recent environmental protests.
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A same-sex couple won custody of their 15-month-old baby in a Thai court that ruled against their surrogate. She'd reneged on the deal after learning the couple are gay. -
Iron deficiency, which can lead to anemia, is a huge problem in Cambodia. A social enterprise wants to prove that adding a little iron fish to a pot on the stove will make a dent in the problem. -
The Philippines is ill-prepared to deal with an expansionist China and is hoping the U.S. will help protect its interests in the region.
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The U.S. presidential contest may seem crowded with more than a dozen candidates on the Republican side alone. But in the Philippines, a record 130 candidates have filed for the presidency. -
Last week's bombing in Thailand came after a remarkably peaceful 15 months. The military seized power in May 2014, and since, hasn't tolerated public resistance. But opposition is still there.
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The Thai economy has been struggling since the military seized power 15 months ago. The bombing in Bangkok Monday has raised fears that tourism — a driver of the economy — may now struggle too with many foreigners among the dead.
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Myanmar's military toppled the chairman of the ruling party and fellow reformers this week — a sign that country may not be on the road to democracy as hoped.
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An estimated 4 to 6 million land mines are scattered throughout Cambodia, one of the world's worst-affected places. Rats possessing an exceptional sense of smell are being trained to detect the mines. -
Aung San Suu Kyi has been universally praised in her battle for democracy in Myanmar. But she has been conspicuously silent about the worsening plight of the Rohingya minority in her homeland.
